tonight will be the night
by SHSL Slacker
Summary: Seven unrelated oneshots for HoriKashi week.
1. do you want to be mine?

**HoriKashi Week, Day 1: Summer. Title from Sidekick - Walk the Moon.**

* * *

So far, summer break had been going about as well as it could go - Hori didn't have to focus on club activities as much, since Mita had so kindly taken care of most of the preparations for the upcoming play in the first week of school after break. It was, of course, still dreadfully hot nearly everyday, but Hori mostly stayed in his room doing his summer homework, though with much reluctance. Whose idea had it been to give the students an essay to complete when every one of them was thinking of doing the exact opposite? Either their History teacher or their English one, he was sure, seeing as how they were almost always doing the same thing every other _day_.

The one, small ( _minuscule_ , even, he tells himself, because it's _not like he cares_ ) drawback to summer break is that he doesn't have the chance to see one Kashima Yuu everyday, likely because her fangirls have been taking the opportunity to drag her around (or be dragged around?) to various places for dates. Thankfully, it was almost halfway through break, and if this sort of thing kept up, maybe her fangirls would have their fill of Kashima for the year and stop coming over every rehearsal during club. (Pft. Yeah, right.)

Then the phone rings.

Hori nearly jumps out of his chair, clearly having not expected that - he'd been using up the time he'd assigned for homework musing over everything that had needed musing, and so he had been taken off-guard, quite clearly. Is his brother expecting a call? Hori surely isn't, but when the phone rings on without interruption, Hori picks it up on its fourth ring. "Hello?"

"Senpai! Hori-chan-senpai! Hi, hi, g' morning!"

"It's afternoon, Kashima." He isn't going to get any homework done today, for sure. "What's with the call?"

"Well, it's summer," Kashima says, her voice a little higher over the phone. "And it's really hot! Isn't it, over there, Senpai? Wanna go out for a date? _I_ don't wanna spend all day in this sweltering heat, you know, sis insisted that we've spent too much money on our electricity bill already-"

But Hori had mostly stopped listening after the word 'date', the single syllable ringing in his head. Right. He had most definitely not been expecting that. It isn't like he'd _wanted_ to hear it or anything, and he _definitely_ didn't want to go out with Kashima for a _date_ , even if it's just a friendly one. Really, he tells himself, I still have about two paragraphs to write, I can't afford to go with Kashima for something as trivial as this.

"There's still a month 'till school, Senpai," Kashima says, sounding a little sulky now, and Hori wants to punch himself for saying things out loud when he hadn't meant to. "You're a great student! Just one day, _pleeease!_ All my other princesses are busy with their own affairs! Ah, hasn't it been some time since we've gone out to have parfaits? We should go now! Or maybe we can get ice cream, since that's cheaper and sis might go mad if she sees the receipt..."

"Er," Hori says.

"Oh, well, if you really don't want to-"

"I'll go," he amends, before reprocessing what he had just said and proceeds to slump over his desk. "Actually, maybe-"

" _Really!_ " Kashima squeals, and Hori has to pull the phone away from his ear lest he have his eardrums blasted. "Really really! You'd do that!? Oh, no-" and here, her voice suddenly takes a drastic turn towards concerned, which prompts Hori to sit back up and raise an eyebrow, "-are you maybe sick, Senpai? Do you have a fever? Don't worry, Hori-chan-sempai, I'll head over right now and heal you from whatever is plaguing my dear princess!"

"I'm not sick. Nor am I one of your princesses," Hori says in a deadpan, re-slumping after hearing the absolutely ridiculous reason Kashima had started worrying herself over. Accepting her request (for a _date_ \- the word makes him feel horribly cheery and horribly nervous at the same time, which is not exactly pleasant) sounds like one of his worst decisions now. Maybe he should just back out of it while he can? But then that would risk hearing Kashima's disappointed voice, which he _does not_ want, else he might be roped into something even crazier than a supposed _date_. Steeling himself for it, he asks, "Anyway - what time and place?"

A pause. "W... What time and place what?"

"I'm asking about the-" he chokes up. "-the outing, of course."

" _Outing!_ " Kashima squeaks, and Hori feels like sinking into his chair and disappearing forever probably. "I! Well! Um!"

"We're not on two opposite sides of a basketball field, Kashima!"

"Right! Sorry!" Nothing changes, except for the painful throbbing above Hori's right eye. Sometimes, he really has to remind himself how he manages to survive daily with this- this _woman_. And anyway, he thinks idly, has she always been this jumpy when the two of them go out together? He distinctly remembers that she hadn't gone and started stammering right in the middle of them having ice cream, so there shouldn't be anything different about this one. "Ah... um... how 'bout right now, Senpai? I can come pick you up! I mean, now that I think about it, there's actually a special sale going on in the cafe across the street from the grocery, their cakes there are really nice, how about it, Senpai? Right, I'm going out now, just- just gotta slip on my shoes- _yowch!_ "

Hori pinches the bridge of his nose, standing up from his chair and trying to look for something decent to wear. "What happened? And did you really get dressed that fast?"

A gasp. "Oh, gosh, you're right, Senpai! I'm still in my pajamas, I gotta get something nice, _they're all in the laundry Senpai what now_ -"

The brunet had long stopped bothering to decipher the babble that had started coming out of the phone, instead opting to open his wardrobe and cast a considering eye over his various clothes. With a sigh, he slips on his usual casual clothing, more out of habit than anything, and also to prevent Kashima to start stammering while she tries to come up with something nice to say about how he looks. He'd rather just enjoy some special-sale-cakes without having to stop the prince from running her mouth every few seconds.

"I'm ready, Senpai, I've got clothes on this time and everything!" Kashima squeaks from his desk. "N-Not that I _didn't_ have clothes on a while ago-" Hori suppresses the mental image with difficulty, "-just that I'm wearing, you know, _actual_ clothes now, yes- okay, alright, shoes, I'm sorry if I'm going to be walking weird, I stubbed my toe while I was trying to get them on the first time-"

"Of course you did," Hori says, rather tempted to hang up in the middle of her next sentence just so she can actually get on with going to his house rather than going on and on and not getting anything done. Wait, shouldn't it be the other way around, with the boy going to the girl's house? Then again, it isn't like Kashima is a normal girl by any means, so he should probably just ignore the feeling that he has a very excited boyfriend waiting for him. "There's no real reason for you to stay on the phone while you're heading here, is there?"

"But I want to talk to you!" Kashima cries, sounding aghast, as if the very idea of having to put down her phone and stop talking to him would signal the apocalypse.

"Kashima, we have more than enough time to talk if you hurry up and get over here already."

A pause. In the momentary quiet, he can hear something like the tinkling of a bell in the other end. Does Kashima have wind chimes or the sort in her house? "... Well, you're right, I guess, but it's more fun this way, isn't it?"

 _Yes. Maybe._ "I don't have lengthy conversations on the phone often-"

"What're you talking about? I call you lots!" Then, though faint, Hori can hear Kashima saying, "Hey, miss, what are these?" and then, after a little while, "How much are they?"

"Kashima, are you buying something?" Hori asks, raising an incredulous eyebrow. He opens his mouth, then bites down on his tongue to prevent himself from saying something stupid like _I thought you were coming to pick me up for our date_ because that just sounds so... girlfriend-y. And he really doesn't feel like getting his hopes up.

There is a guilty moment of silence. "... Yes," she admits, her voice an octave higher and slightly squeaky. A cash register slides open in the background. Hori feels the throbbing above his eye increase in intensity. "B-But don't worry, Senpai! It won't take long, not at all! This is just... an errand, yes! An errand! I completely- er- forgot about it until now, b-but since I'm already going out, I thought it shouldn't hurt!"

This is probably why she should have hung up, Hori thinks. She's no good at being subtle, nor is she any better at lying. Feeling tired, the brunet just nods to himself and settles his chin on the table. "If you say so..."

"You don't believe me, do you?" Kashima says, not unlike a frightened child who had just lied to a parent (and had been found out).

"Sure I do..."

"I'm sorry, Senpai!" she cries, no doubt attracting the attention of passersby all around. "I- I didn't think it would bother you this much! A-Are you maybe-" she gasps dramatically, " _jealous!_ Are you j-jealous that-"

" _Are you mocking me!?_ "

* * *

Kashima shows up after about five minutes of panicked one-sided talking over the phone; Hori had just restrained himself from slamming the phone and crushing it to pieces, mainly because it had cost a significant amount of money and he wouldn't want it to go to waste. (Well, if it was for this cause, maybe so, but his brother would be very disappointed in him.) When she rings the doorbell with an excited exclamation of "I'm here, Senpai!", Hori hangs up with great relief and stomps over to answer the door, calling to his brother that he'll be out.

"So, where? Did you decide on a place yet?"

"Ah! Well, I've decided on the cake place, since it's not too far from here and their air conditioning is really nice for this hot day..." She sighs and absentmindedly fans herself. "Maybe I should've worn something thinner, like the nice shirt Seo-sensei gave me..."

Hori tries, in vain, not to imagine how Kashima would look in something any thinner than a blouse and shorts (and a rather large bag, for some reason).

When they do arrive in the small, quaint shop, the cool air blasts them like the opposite of a furnace, and Kashima makes a dash towards a table that Hori can safely assume has been labeled as hers, judging by the way nearly half a dozen waitresses immediately follow in what looks like one practiced motion. When the brunet sits down on the opposite side of the table, the waitresses divert their gaze towards him with a rather menacing look in their eyes. It's quite terrifying.

"Good afternoon, my princesses," Kashima says, taking the nearest waitress' hand and kissing the back of her palm. The poor girl looks like she might faint; everyone else stares at her in evident jealousy. "How are you all doing today? Well, I hope?"

"Oh-"

"Yes-"

"We were just-"

"That is-"

Hori peers upward, where there is a menu conveniently positioned where he can see about half of the available orders near the counter. Lucky him. He decides on the cheap cheesecake, because he'd much rather have that than the frighteningly sugary-sweet strawberry cake just below it. When Kashima is finished charming all four waitresses with ease, like she always does, Hori places his order and eyes Kashima with slight distaste when she decides on the strawberry cake.

"Just the cheesecake, Hori-chan-senpai?" Kashima asks, craning her neck to take a look at the cheesecakes on display. "Don't you want anything nicer? Well, I am paying, so maybe I shouldn't be complaining..."

"Wait, you didn't say anything about you paying," Hori says, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, of course I have to pay! You're my _princess_ , after all, so-"

"Kashima, I don't want to have to cause a scene in here."

"Yes, Senpai."

They'd gotten into a conversation about Kashima's financial "problems", which were mainly caused due to the large amount of dates she had gone out with her fangirls to parfaits, effectively draining much of the money they had at home. Kashima had been forced to stay at home and do something productive like finish her school essay while they could recover all the money she had spent, though it was obvious she hadn't paid much attention to what she was supposed to do, seeing as the strawberry cake had easily been one of the more expensive ones in the shop. Not to mention the fact that Hori had clearly heard Kashima buying something over the phone, which didn't help matters, and that she would be paying for him as well.

... Not if he could help it, anyway. He'd just have to snatch the bill from her hands in the momentary distraction of her taking out her wallet and shove some yen in it before handing it back to the waitress.

"Want some, Senpai?" Kashima asks, grinning excitedly as she holds out a spoon of strawberry cake.

Hori wrinkles his nose in disgust. "No, thanks."

"Aw! Come on, it's really good-"

"-not to mention _expensive_ -"

"-I'm paying!"

"No, you're not-"

The moment his mouth opens to say the word "not", Kashima sees her chance and _takes_ it, shoving the spoon in his mouth with maybe a little too much force than normal. Hori nearly chokes on the metal and forces himself to swallow the spoonful of _way too sweet_ cake, but a chunk of strawberry gets caught in his throat in the endeavor. Trying not to make too much noise from his coughing and spluttering, he attempts excusing himself to the restroom, but Kashima just about screeches in distress and starts thumping on Hori's back, stretching her arm awkwardly from across the table, and effectively knocks the wind out of the poor brunet's lungs.

Five minutes later, when they're both calmed down enough for Hori to feel like sinking into the floor and for Kashima to withdraw her arm from the other end of the table, a heavy silence descends upon them. Hori's cheesecake looks like it's melting, though it's barely been touched. Then a noise that resembles a dying animal issues from Kashima's direction, and Hori looks up curiously.

"S-S-S-Senpai, I didn't know what to get you, you see-"

"What?"

"-so I just got one at random, and I don't know, is it too flashy? Too simple?" She starts rummaging inside the comically large bag she brought, then comes up with a ridiculously large bouquet of red flowers with white tingeing its edges, some purple-colored ones mixed in. A few petals and leaves fall out, landing in Kashima's half-finished strawberry cake. "I-I didn't know what flowers to get you-"

Hori stares at her for a very long time with an incredulous look in his eyes. Kashima stammers something else and gradually stops talking at all, gazing up at Hori slightly through her eyelashes, sinking deeper and deeper into her seat, face flushing bright red.

The brunet sighs and takes the bouquet, before leaning over to come nose-to-nose with the frantically stuttering Kashima. "I'm paying," he says simply, and when an explosion of protests bursts out of her mouth, Hori pushes himself as forward as he can and kisses her.

The edge of the table is digging into his stomach painfully, but the only thing he can feel is her lips on his, and wow, they're softer and warmer than he'd expected. When he pulls away, because the human body sadly needs oxygen, Kashima makes a whining noise. "Again," she complains, and Hori doesn't need her to say it again to comply.

(From the corner of his eye, he can see a flock of waitresses glaring daggers at him.)

* * *

 **Tomorrow: Fight. (HoriKashi Week entries will be listed on the Tumblr horikashiweek, so be sure to take a look!)**

 _ **Slacker, 6/1/15**_


	2. i fell in love with a dream

**Day 2: Fight. Title from We Move Like the Ocean - Bad Suns.**

* * *

Several times Masayuki catches him fighting; several times Masayuki stays to watch; all those times, Masayuki watches him win.

It's very frustrating. Ever since he had joined the king's army, there hadn't been a time where he hadn't lost a practice fight Masayuki had watched. Over time, it had just become something to look forward to - his duels, that is, the ones Hori Masayuki spies on when he thinks the knight isn't watching. Sometimes he fools himself into thinking that if _he_ can do it, then so can Masayuki, but when he enlists the knights _he_ had beaten, Masayuki just about crushes them under his heel due to his practicing opponents going way, way too easy on him.

As mentioned: it's very frustrating.

Masayuki tries gathering information about him. The knights say he's as courteous to the nobles as courteous can get, he's stronger than most of the others, so on and so forth. They're all things Masayuki already _knows_ , so when he just gets the same things again and again, he eventually stops. It's gone from irritating to frustrating to distressing, because his obsession with the strange knight is getting worse and worse. If his father knows-

Masayuki doesn't even know his name, or where he comes from, or what the knight calls him when they talk about the young master. Alright, so the last one isn't _that_ important, but Masayuki knows a lot, and he doesn't like his knowledge about the knights being tested. It feels like the knight is taunting him, dancing out of his reach every time he gets close enough for him to think, _I can get him now, I've got him_ , just to pull away at the last second, like a mouse playing with a slow cat.

When he decides that he might as well walk right up to the knight himself instead of playing his game, Masayuki waits by the dueling area once more. The knight is swinging his sword with practiced ease, and he moves smoothly, fluidly, that it feels like it's almost a sin to watch. He fells his practice partner in minutes, then sheathes his sword and helps pull Nozaki up, grinning from ear to ear and bowing politely. The rest of the knights clear out, passing by Masayuki on the way (he shushes them and shooes them away so the knight won't notice), until finally, it's only _the_ knight standing there, humming cheerfully (and horribly) as he moves to go back inside the castle as well.

"Wait."

"-Hmm?"

The knight looks up; his helmet had been taken off, leaving Masayuki a good view of what can be accounted as the perfect face, with perfectly coiffed bangs and the perfect shade of blue for his hair. After a split-second hesitation, where the brunet calmly takes in the knight's appearance (well, he's a _prince_ , he can do whatever he wants, thank you very much), Masayuki says, "Let's have a fight."

A pause. Then realization seems to dawn on the knight's face, and he sinks down into a bow. "Hori-sama-"

"Get up," Masayuki says, trying not to pinch the bridge of his nose. He doesn't want any delays; he's been standing here long enough for that. "I said, let's have a fight."

The knight blinks up at him curiously. "But it's nearly nighttime, Hori-sama, surely-"

"Did you hear me, knight? Let's have a _fight_ , not a conversation. That can be saved for later."

He looks almost surprised for a moment, before he smoothly changes his expression to polite interest. "If that is what you wish."

Masayuki runs over his tactics as best as he can; he's seen how the knight fights, with swift, precise movements, so he should have some sort of an advantage if he can recognize the usual moves he makes against him and parry effectively. On the other hand, Masayuki's never had a reliable training partner, seeing as how everyone just about falls to their feet after one swing of the brunet's sword, so he has much less experience than the knight, however grudgingly he has to admit it.

They take their places on the dueling area, bowing respectfully, though Masayuki keeps his eyes trained on the knight, whose gaze flickers upwards when the brunet had been sure he had his eyes trained on the ground. Masayuki scowls and looks away. It's not like he _dislikes_ the knight, but he does get a strange feeling in his stomach, which he doesn't feel like expounding on. After all, it can't be anything good.

In a few seconds, their swords are swinging every which way, _clang_ s echoing in the area. The knight's faster than Masayuki had been expecting, diving in and out of his reach without even trying; the brunet is, though relatively unharmed (most likely to do with the same reason he had won every battle with every other knight), is getting the familiar feeling of _frustration_ welling up inside. He shouldn't be, really, and if he just focuses on the fight, maybe he'd actually win, or come close to it, but every time he's sure that he can land a hit on the knight, green eyes flicker upwards into his and it's _distracting_. As if his hair isn't enough, even those specks of gold mixed in emerald are enough to pull his mind away from the duel and drift to- what? He's not sure. But it's certainly somewhere he doesn't want his mind to be in.

After what feel like hours of swords clashing against one another, the two jump away from each other, Masayuki staring down his opponent in annoyance. "What are you doing?"

"Fighting, Hori-sama, like you wanted," the knight says, and the way his lips form the words makes Masayuki want to throw him off the castle, though he doesn't know why.

"No, you're- you're doing _something_ ," he says, trying not to sound like a child learning new words. He can almost feel the knight laughing at him from inside, and something throbs above his right eye. "It's- distracting me. What are you doing?"

"I'm not doing anything, Hori-sama," the knight replies smoothly, eyes narrowing in amusement as the smallest of sly smiles creeps onto his face. "Maybe it's just you."

Masayuki rushes forward, sword at the ready, but the knight is faster than he had accounted for, swinging his own sword upwards to knock the hilt right out of the brunet's grip. His sword clatters a few ways away almost forlornly.

Silence. Then the knight retrieves his sword from the ground and presents it to him in a bow. "Your sword, Hori-sama."

"I could have done that myself," he says, not quite calmly, not quite aggressively. Masayuki takes the sword out of the knight's hands and sheathes it, looking down at the cobalt-haired knight before him. "Up."

He stands up, eyes twinkling. "Is there anything else?"

"What's your name?" For some reason, Masayuki had never really heard anyone mention the knight's name, though he was sure it couldn't be because nobody knew it. Maybe it had just slipped his mind, though that sounded unlikely, too.

"Kashima Yuu, Hori-sama."

"Oh." A Kashima. Of course he was a Kashima; that family had been on good relations with his father for years, and it's clear to everyone that they get along as well as best friends. But last time he had heard, the Kashima family had two daughters, and Masayuki hadn't heard of them having a son being a knight... "Then... you're...?"

"Hm?" He tilts his head - no. It can't be. This knight is...? "Oh, my gender, is it? I'm a woman, Hori-sama, though you're not the first one to make that mistake."

"... What?" Masayuki says, having virtually run out of things to say. What do you tell someone you've recently thought of as the opposite gender and therefore acted like being in the presence of any other male? Even worse: had he just been defeated by a _woman?_ And now, the worst part: _the woman knight was taller than him._ "... What?" He manages again.

Kashima laughs - she actually _dares_ to laugh, what on Earth- "My apologies, Hori-sama. I thought you knew? You've been watching my fights ever since I came here, right? Oh, but please don't tell the king," and here, her voice drops to a lower volume, "I don't know if the king would allow a woman among his knights. You are fine with it, Hori-sama?"

"I... guess so," he replies. Although she _is_ a woman, she still had defeated him in battle (though that may be because he had been distracted by her eyes, and her hair, and the way she smiles after every successful dodge - _damn_ it, everything becomes so much more complicated now that he knows she's a she), and gender ceases to matter in the middle of a fight, unless chivalry was there, somehow, while people would be dying left and right. "Well - I think I need to talk to you for a bit."

"Am I in trouble, Hori-sama?" She asks quietly, and Masayuki feels like he has to lie down a bit to get rid of her voice in his head.

"Nothing like that- just, I know a lot about the knights in here, except you. If ever my father finds out about your- gender, I can, maybe, vouch for you to stay."

The knight's eyes shine like a beacon in the night. "Is that so, Hori-sama? You're- You're the most- wonderful- I'm very, very honored-"

"Save it," Masayuki says, sighing as he turns around to hide his face. "I did say we were to have a conversation after the fight. Which I, er, thank you for."

Before this, he hadn't ever thought that he'd be happy to lose a fight, but, oh well.

* * *

 **Tomorrow: Star.**

 _ **Slacker, 6/2/15**_


	3. how long 'til i stop saying i miss you?

**HoriKashi Week, Day 3: Star. Title from Cutie Boots - Stepdad.**

* * *

The Kashima's new house is, either coincidentally or not, located only a bus stop away from a graveyard.

Kashima Yuu, coincidentally or not, walks to school everyday, the distance between the school and her house being the graveyard.

Kashima Yuu, coincidentally or not, can see spirits.

And so, when these coincidences-or-nots come together to form one big Coincidence, or maybe not, Yuu meets someone she oughtn't have. That being: a ghost who is not buried in the graveyard.

* * *

They had moved away from their first home when Yuu had finally posed the question: can we move out?

Things had been going not-so-well for the Kashima family, after all. The younger Kashima daughter had been expelled from school after being framed for injuring the daughter of the school headmaster (Yuu knows her little sister had only been in the wrong place at the wrong time; her attitude towards the victim hadn't helped matters, though), and Yuu herself had been having horrible nightmares - she can barely remember any of them, but she's sure they involved car crashes, screams, blood, _lots_ of blood, and a very dark, very blurry room with lots of chairs and three tables, but Yuu doesn't know what to make of them. Not to mention that their parents had had a hard time getting stable jobs as well; with all these things combined, it was obvious the Kashima family was going to have to scrounge up whatever money they had been able to save and move to a new house.

Generally, Yuu tried to keep away from the graveyard when she walked to school, crossing the street so she could walk on the sidewalk further away from the graveyard. This, of course, couldn't stop her from sneaking peeks when her little sister wasn't watching; sometimes, she'd see old, frail people walking on the overgrown area, stopping every so often to look around, or young children laughing and playing, phasing through street lamps and trash cans, or teenagers talking amongst each other, gesturing wildly in the middle of telling a story. When Yuu walks home alone, in the occasion that her sister doesn't have classes on that day, she stops by to stand by the gate of the graveyard and watch people who are barely any different from the living go through their daily lives. Nobody notices her, or maybe they do, but either way, nobody stops to spare her a second glance. Sometimes the children go up to her and stare up at her face, whispering and murmuring, no doubt about how the strange tall lady had been visiting them when they were sure nobody had had a daughter this old or a mother that young.

(At one point, a barely-adult had tried to talk to her, probably speaking his mind, seeing as he hadn't known she could see him. He'd said something along the lines of _hey, darling, what are you doing all alone on a day like this?_ while his friends had laughed raucously a few ways away.

After making sure nobody living was paying attention, she replied, under her breath, _did you die drunk, sir?_

There had been a heavy silence, she remembers, and then loud shouts and exclamations of shock from the group, before they dashed away into the misty shadows of the graveyard. Yuu had watched them fade away, waited for a few minutes in case they brought back any others, but it was evident that nobody believed them when she remained there by herself.)

On one side of the graveyard was a dark alleyway, filled with the typical gangsters and members of the local yakuza, not to mention the street rats and the beggars who'd jump up and snatch more than just a ten yen coin when offered. Yuu made it an effort to steer clear of the place, though for different reasons than the graveyard; while she avoided both when with her sister, the alleyway was a place she was sure she wouldn't want to visit at any time.

It got worse when she was pulled into the alleyway against her will. Then again, why else would she visit the alleyway? She surely had no idea she'd be having quite an experience in there, in more ways than one.

It had been a day when classes had been canceled for her sister, so she had walked home alone, taking care to stay away from the alleyway as always. However, she had let her guard down and rounded the street once she had passed the alleyway to visit the graveyard again, peering through the bars of the gate with no real conviction to get inside. She hadn't noticed when a hand from behind snatched the back of her collar and dragged her into the alleyway like a predator dragging its prey into its lair.

That's where she is now, incidentally, struggling to get out of her assaulter's grip.

Having never been in this situation before, the first thing that comes to mind is for her to swing her fists wildly and hope they connect. When her right fist does make contact with something, she feels whatever it is make a sickening _crunch_ and a shriek of pain erupts from her assaulter. Their grip loosens, and Yuu seizes her chance, scrambling away to get out of the alley and, hopefully, away from the danger.

She fails. Something grasps wildly onto her ankle, a yellow-nailed pruned, wrinkled hand, its grip vice-like. Yuu tries kicking it off, but only succeeds in throwing her shoe into the air and landing somewhere further into the alley. And, before she can think of any other attempt to get the _hell_ away from whatever is happening, something collides against the back of her head and knocks her out.

When she comes to, it doesn't feel very late, but it is rather dark, though that's probably because she's deep inside the alleyway by this point, she's sure. Yuu cranes her neck to look around her as much as she can, but the only thing she can see is the faint glimmer of light from far, far away, which must be the exit into the street. If she can only barely manage to see it, then it's certain there's no way out of... wherever she is.

There are, evidently, spirits around here too, emaciated children gathered around her, eyes wide in curiosity (and that's how she can tell they're no longer with the living; their eyes are quite different), and a lone teenager leaning against a graffiti-sprayed wall, watching her with disinterest. Yuu tries moving her arms, but something coarse scratches against her wrists. Rope. Her legs aren't much better - she can still feel where the hand had grabbed her ankle and presumably pulled her in deeper, too. Her bag doesn't seem to be anywhere near, either; her assaulter must be a robber, then, but there isn't much reason to keep a victim tied up if all you'd need is their bag...

"Why am I here?" she manages, looking up at the teenager. Her throat feels stupendously dry; had she been in here longer than she thought?

The teenager seems to blink in surprise, but doesn't answer, probably thinking she had been talking to herself. Yuu clears her throat as best as she can and says, "I'm talking to you, the one with brown hair in a blue shirt."

A pause. Then the children squeal and shout, scrambling away from her and looking back and forth between her and the teenager, whose dark (darker than dark, darker than those who still walk this earth with air in their lungs and blood in their veins, darker than a beautiful black) eyes are now wide in surprise. "Who are you?" he asks, straightening, looking almost unsure whether to step backward or forward.

"I'm Kashima Yuu," says Yuu.

"No, not your _name_ -"

"But why else would you ask-"

"That doesn't _always_ mean names-"

"Hori-senpai, they're comin'!" one of the children scream, and the rest of them immediately scatter, some fading into the air, others clambering up the pipes or hiding in the garbage bins. "Hori-senpai", who is probably the teenager, inclines his head, then turns to face Yuu.

Before he can say anything, though, she speaks first. "Why's everyone hiding? They're spirits. People won't see them."

"And yet here you are," Hori remarks dryly. "They may not see us, but they can- feel us, in a way. Well, most of the kids still have their living instincts, which is to run and hide from bigger enemies." He pauses. Yuu opens her mouth, but he cuts her off, looking smug. "They've been watching you. You just moved here, didn't you? They're keeping you here so they can get some more money out of your family, if they're here."

"We don't have that much money." There are footsteps, now, she can hear. Maybe two people thundering their way towards her. "Anyway, they've already taken my bag. They... whoever they are, they can just get what's in there and leave me alone-"

"That's not how it works," Hori interrupts, eyes narrowing. "They'll squeeze out as much money as they can before they throw you back out."

"Well, I don't want that."

"That's too bad."

"Aren't you going to help me?" She frowns.

Hori raises an eyebrow.

"Oh, come on, please?" Yuu pleads, looking up at him as best as she can without irritating her neck too much. She had probably hit the ground hard when she fell, there's a crick in her neck that hurts whenever she tries to move her head to the side... "I promise I can help you back. Don't you want to Ascend?"

Hori makes an uncomfortable jerk and moves away from Yuu at the same time two dark, shadowed figures come to a stop in front of her. The front one makes a wheezy laugh. "Well, if it isn't our new prize. You said this was the new kid, Tarou?"

An old, slightly more feminine voice makes a noise. "Aye. I thought she'd have the little one with her... but not today, it looks. If she had, though, this would have gone lots easier, eh?" A croaky laugh.

"Well, girl, today's your unlucky day," the first person says, seemingly bending down to come eye level with Yuu, since she can just make out the glimmer of greedy eyes in front of her. "We're going to shake your family upside-down with your help until all their money comes falling out for us to catch. And if they don't give us everything they've got, you're going to pay for it - understand?"

"There's a ghost behind you," Yuu whispers, trying to hide her eyes. (Eyes are the weak point, she knows, she remembers. Eyes betray.) "Can't you feel him? It's rather cold here, isn't it?"

Something collides with her face, sending her crumpling to her side, unable to steady herself with her limbs bound. The second voice, presumably "Tarou", spits, "Impertinent brat!"

"If you're not going to give us a straight answer," the first voice hisses, barely inches from her face, "then don't even try to scare us. We've been in this place for years. Ghosts? Are you trying to pass us off by being mental? Oh, you're scared, trying to pretend you're hallucinating, are you? Too bad, girl, we're here to rob your family and everything else with them. Do- you- hear- _me?_ "

Yuu doesn't respond, mainly because she can taste the faint metal of blood in her mouth. Something _whoosh_ es through the air, like something flying right over her, and then unearthly screams, and then, finally, something falling to the ground with a _thud_. Tarou shrieks from a few ways away. "Nagasaki! _Nagasaki!?_ "

Something (someone?) breathes down on Yuu's ear, and the ropes loosen around her wrists and ankles. "Go."

She jumps up and, although she's sorely tempted to push Tarou onto her back for good measure, rushes off towards the end of the alleyway, immediately turning and crashing against the graveyard gates. She's far away enough for the sounds of the scuffle to be almost nonexistent, but the silence that's fallen upon her is almost just as bad, makes a chill run up her spine-

"Kashima?"

Yuu jumps about three feet in the air and nearly hits her head against the gates again. Whirling around and expecting a fight, she comes face-to-face with the spirit of the teenager from the alleyway; Hori. He looks almost amused at her reaction, though he keeps an admirably indifferent expression on his face. "What you said..."

"You don't have to scare me like that!"

"What you said about Ascending," Hori continues, as if Yuu had never spoken, "How do you know? How do you even see... us?"

A thick silence descends upon them. Yuu directs her eyes downwards, entwining and separating her fingers repeatedly. "I've been able to see spirits since I can remember. You're not any different from wanting to Ascend. That's like the ultimate peace for spirits, right? Having your mind at rest and being able to become one of the stars in the sky and everything, not having to worry again... that's it, right? And the shooting stars are supposed to..."

"-symbolize our reincarnation as another living being. I know that much," Hori snaps, and Yuu quails under his sharp gaze. With a sigh, the brunet redirects his eyes to the side, massaging his temple. "Look- even if both of us wanted to, you can't help me Ascend. I'm not... going to be able to unless I do it myself."

"Why?"

It's the simple question that has Hori silent, dark dead eyes glaring at something far away. Yuu stares in them as best as she can, watches the too-faint lights of the city dance within them. "For one, he murdered my family and got away with it, and then murdered _me_. If someone did that to you-"

"-I'd want to kill them myself too, even after death, right?" Yuu interrupts.

"Yeah."

"Huh…"

Another silence, until Hori finally gives out a long, heavy sigh and leans against the graveyard gates. "So, what? I saved you. How are you going to pay me back now?"

"You must think I'm able to help you Ascend," Yuu says, trying not to let her voice shake. "After all, I suggested it, and then you... helped me, so that must mean you expect something out of me."

"You're not wrong," Hori admits, to which even Yuu blinks at. She certainly hadn't been expecting a bold admission. "I got my hopes up, I guess. But I don't exactly know where that murderer is, do I? He's probably left the country years ago."

"What if he hasn't?"

"I don't know, searching the whole of Japan seems like a pretty tough job for one high-schooler, isn't it?" Hori asks sardonically.

Yuu frowns. "But you _helped_ me, of course I have to help you back-"

"It doesn't _matter_ , I'm one of those spirits who are probably going to stay here forever-"

"Unless I _help_ you! Maybe we could ask the police-"

"And say what? 'I'm looking for the man who killed my dead friend and his family and got away with it'-?"

"Of course not!" Yuu bursts, flailing her arms around wildly. It's nearly dusk, her parents must be worried sick, Yuu's never been home this late before- "Look, do you _want_ to Ascend or not? I'm not going to just burst into the police station and fire questions at them! You're going to help me look for the man who killed you and your family, alright? And then when we _do_ find him-"

"You said 'when'," Hori says, snorting. "I don't know whether you're that sure of it or you're just full of yourself."

The cobalt-haired student doesn't think she's ever met someone who is as negative as this spirit standing before her. "If you really don't want to do it," she says, defenses wearing down, tiredness finally crashing down on her frame, "then I won't. Thanks for today."

Yuu turns her back on the spirit and trudges back home, missing a shoe and her bag. She can feel his dark eyes on her back, but she doesn't think she even cares by this point. At the very least, she's not dead, and she can still have a chance at saving up all her money again to make up for the amount lost today.

Above head, the stars twinkle against the black blanketing the sky. Hori Masayuki cranes his neck to look upward and slowly traces constellations with scarred fingers.

* * *

Yuu doesn't dare go near the graveyard again, in fear she'll drop her guard and let other alleymen (at least, that's what she's taken to calling them; it stuck, after a while) grab her and drag her into the depths again. Consequently, she doesn't bump into Hori again, nor does she spy any of the spirit children from the alley. The graveyard, from a distance, seems deserted as well, which Yuu finds quite odd, since it's always possible for her to see someone lounging near the gates.

The next time she _does_ see Hori is, however, with her sister, while they're walking to school. More of running, actually; Yuu had woken up late, as is usual, and one more cross in her attendance would compromise her normally perfect grades. The problem: Hori had an entire afterlife. Yuu and Rin had ten minutes.

The brunet materializes out of nowhere in front of the siblings as a grand entrance, causing Yuu to skid to a halt while Rin dashes on, then narrowly misses hitting a streetlight when she looks behind her to wonder why her sister isn't following. "Nee-chan?"

"Just- Just a moment! Gonna, uh- check my stuff-" Then, in a hissed undertone, " _Why are you here?_ "

"You said you could help me Ascend, right?"

Yuu digs through her (secondhand) bag, flinging (secondhand) books left and right in an attempt to look busy. "Like, I'd be happy to help and all that, but now is really not the time-"

"Matsu-sensei is gonna kill me!" Rin nearly screeches from a short distance away, jumping up and down and almost crashing against a bench.

Yuu makes a gesture with her head towards Rin, to which the brunet glances over at with dull interest. "You're running late for school? Really? You study in that Roman Academy place, right? They'd have closed the gates by now."

A battered old mathematics book Yuu had been holding drops to the ground. She's fairly sure her soul had risen from her body and drifted away into the clouds. "Ah... Rin-chan... I'm doomed, I really am..."

" _Nee-chan!?_ "

"By the way, I brought your bag back for you," Hori mutters, holding the dark book bag up in one hand, now looking dirty and spattered with muck. "I don't think the bag itself is salvageable, and there isn't any money left in your wallet, but I thought you would have wanted it back."

"Oh, thanks, Hori-kun, but, really, my sister's not like me, so could you-"

Hori tosses her bag towards her, the muddy bag landing squarely on her head. Yuu makes a pained noise, not unlike a dying animal, and wrenches the bag away from her mussed-up hair. "Why-!" Then her green eyes widen, and Yuu swivels around to face her stunned sister.

In any normal living human's eyes, all they had seen was a bag materialize out of thin air and land on a girl's head. Kashima Rin is, almost unfortunately in this situation, a normal living human. Several other passersby are, too, normal living humans. Nearly everyone stops to stare at what had just happened.

"N-Nee-chan?" Rin squeaks, bright eyes wide open. "I... You...?"

Yuu opens her mouth, closes it, opens it again, and makes a blubbering sound in the back of her throat. Next to her, Hori swears very loudly and moves towards the younger Kashima sibling-

"Wait, _don't_ -!"

Her sudden yell surprises about half the street and causes Rin to look like a grenade had exploded right under her feet by how high she'd jumped. "W-What's going on!? Are you okay!?"

"N-No, I mean, yes, I'm fine!" Yuu stammers, directing her gaze towards Hori at the same time and trying to focus her rapid thoughts of _don'tdoitdon'tdoitdon'tdoitdon'tdoit_ into her glare. "Just, I- I got surprised, is all, I mean, I thought- I have no idea-" She takes a deep breath and exhales, then grabs both bags and sets off towards the school. "You know what, let's- let's just, uh, put that behind us, we're _really_ late now... I could help you climb over the gate if you want..."

* * *

Hori is there when Yuu opens the door to the convenience store.

Yuu _almost_ turns around and walks back out. Instead, she grits her teeth and stares at him, hard. "I need to talk to you," the brunet says. She pretends to ignore him and enters an isolated aisle before taking the chance to speak.

"What were you thinking!?" she hisses, trying to keep her voice down; though there isn't anyone else near them, she isn't lucky enough to have absolutely no one pass by the aisle. "You were going to do that thing, what do you call it, the memory-erasing thing!"

"Yes, that," Hori says, eyes narrowed. "Why stop me? It would have been easier to move away from the scene with your sister if no one else but you and I remember that stupid bag."

"You threw it, you know."

"That was my mistake. I'm sorry."

"Well, that's alright, but-" Yuu sighs and grabs a carton of milk from the shelf, placing it in her cart. "Just, well, I've seen a lot of people who've been on the receiving end of a memory erasure gone wrong, and it's bad enough that they can't remember anything about themselves, or their family and friends. And, and I didn't want to risk it... but, uh, I don't know, thanks for the thought, I guess..."

Hori moves to stand directly behind her, staring at her back curiously. If Yuu turns around, which she wants to, she'll see emerald tinting those eyes, darkened to a beautiful black. The mix, the swirl of color twisting and turning within each other would be too mesmerizing to ignore, and Yuu knows if she turns around, which she _wants_ to, she won't be looking away. Then Hori speaks up, a welcome distraction from the temptation of turning her head; "I'm sorry, again. I didn't think... I thought I'd be able to do it well, I've done it millions of times against the others-"

"It's 'kay," Yuu mumbles, deciding to stare at the back of a candy jar instead, not wanting to risk turning around and getting sucked into that pair of dark _(too dark too dark too dark)_ eyes. Then, with a sigh, she asks, "So- Ascending."

"Yes." Hori sighs. "I thought about your offer to help, and I can't say I wasn't... interested. But I'll understand if you don't want to help after, well-" He gestures vaguely towards nothing in particular, though he probably means the very idea of the two of them, one living and one dead, in an aisle in a convenience store and having a conversation like it's something they do everyday. "This."

"Oh-" Yuu brightens. "Yes! I mean... I always like helping others Ascend... but how are we going to do it for you?"

"I have a plan."

"Really?"

"Uh- Part of it."

* * *

"This isn't the first time I'm disobeying direct orders, but it feels a lot weirder this time," Yuu murmurs, trying not to shiver with every second that passes that she's still jacket-less. She couldn't risk going into her room to grab a jacket and sneak back out, because she's quite sure her parents will catch her and lecture her about _what_ they had just _told_ her about going outside alone at nighttime. "So where are we going, Hori-senpai?"

"The police station," the brunet replies, looking over his shoulder cautiously. "I don't think I've ever gone there before, though, but I consulted the map the other day. And- "Hori-senpai"?"

"Well, that's what the kids called you, back there, didn't they?"

"You're not wrong, but-"

"Can't _I_ call you Hori-senpai, too? You're probably a lot older than me, anyway!"

"How old _are_ you?"

"I think I'm sixteen, but my birthday might've passed already, so maybe seventeen? Well, somewhere like that."

"Around now, I would be seventeen or eighteen, so I'm only older than you by a year or a couple months. Don't go around calling me an old man, Kashima."

"Oh, you're using my name!"

"I used it one other time, too, you know. Your name feels kind of weird when I say it..."

"Yours feels natural, Hori-senpai!" A man walks past, carrying a suitcase, and Yuu clams up, looking at the man suspiciously. "It just occurred to me... your murderer could be that man who just walked past, you know?"

"I'd recognize him if he did walk past. And I don't think people have forgotten about the girl with the materializing bag, so try not to freak out anyone who passes by as the girl from this morning talking to herself."

"Gotcha, Hori-senpai. So, what're we going to do in the station?"

They turn a corner and wait for the traffic light to turn green. "You're going to say you're looking for a man named Matsuoka Nagase, you're his cousin who just came from the province and you forgot where his address is."

"And then?"

"And then..." A pause. Yuu narrowly avoids bumping against the back of a middle-aged woman, who had stopped in the middle of the road to answer her phone. "That's where I don't know what to do next, actually. I was hoping you're a good improviser."

"What!? Hori-senpai-!"

The woman whirls around in surprise. Hori makes a pained noise at the back of his throat and hastily mutters for her to look confused. Yuu immediately assumes a politely bemused expression, while the woman stares at her, before shaking her head and returning to her call. "Sorry about that, Saki-kun, I think I just need some rest, I've been feeling jumpy all day... the kids at school are seriously wearing me down, being a teacher isn't easy... what were you saying?"

Once the teacher passes by safely, Yuu lets out a breath of relief. "I'm sorry about that, Hori-senpai, I just forgot...! ... Hori-senpai?"

The brunet had been staring after the retreating figure of the female teacher, still chatting away on her phone. "... No, it's nothing." He sighs. "Anyway, I was thinking you could corner him into admitting he'd killed my family, but I guess that wouldn't be very easy either. For one thing, while I could give you a blow-by-blow on how exactly he had killed them, he'd probably go insane and kill you, too, like he did with me, so maybe... I don't know, try not to get too close to him."

"That's freaky," Yuu says, shuddering. "I'm not really good at subtlety, honestly, but I can make it up as we go along. Hey, if he tries to really- to really kill me-" she shivers and looks around, as if expecting Hori's killer to jump out at any moment, "-then you can stop him, right?"

"Yes," Hori says, so very quickly and surely and in such a straightforward manner that Yuu whirls around to look at him incredulously. The brunet doesn't even blink at the stare she gives him. "What? Are you doubting me? It's not like I can die again, and I'd love to get some form of revenge upon him."

"Oh- right, sorry, I just-" Yuu sighs. "Forgot. You know how weird it is to talk to someone and they say they'd just about willingly give up their life for you? I haven't had a proper conversation with a spirit for ages, I just-" she pauses, like she's considering her choices. "Just kinda got used to you, I guess."

Hori shrugs and leaves it at that. Yuu doesn't really mind. "The police station is this way, right?" he asks, peering over at the left.

"Huh? No, it's this way, isn't it?" she says, tugging his arm to the right.

There is a slight pause as the duo engage in a very intense staring contest, as if trying to overpower the other's decision through their gaze. This turns out to be one of Kashima Yuu's big mistakes, because when she does make eye contact with Hori Masayuki, she finds that she quite likes what she sees - black eyes with green and yellow swirling within them, making such a wonderful combination that it would be almost painful to look away. She's sure black is supposed to be an impenetrable color, solid and unchanging, never yielding against any other color. But this, _this_ mixture of ebony and emerald and gold makes it feel like a crime to look away.

Which is probably why Yuu should be going to jail right this moment, because she wrenches her gaze away from Hori's eyes and admits, "Well, I guess you _have_ been in this place longer than me..."

On the way to the police station, or where Hori thinks is where the police station is, Yuu finds herself asking several questions, using the lack of people in the near vicinity to her advantage. "Hori-senpai, can I ask how your family died?" She makes sure to voice this question slowly and gently, so the brunet won't lash out at her - too much. "You don't have to answer me or anything, but, I don't know, it might help when we have to go talk to- what's his name? Matsuoka-kun."

"Matsuoka's car crashed against theirs," Hori says bluntly, which almost surprises Yuu, considering that no one really talks about how they died without any hesitation. "I was eight, in the backseat, fell over, hit my head. Couldn't shout for help or anything, but I had a clear view of that murderer walking out and beating them both to death with this metal bat. Pretty sure he had some people with him at the time, but I'm not sure. Either way, he probably didn't know I was there, because once both of my parents were dead, he walked away and got back into his car with his friends. Some people didn't think it was just a car accident, but no one was around to witness it, and they didn't believe me during the trial when he was a suspect, a kid who had hit his head and couldn't even talk for a few days. They couldn't examine the bodies when I said that they had been beaten to death either, since they had already been cremated." He sighs, and his eyes flicker towards the sky, which is a clear blue. (Yuu is momentarily distracted, though not by the sky.) "Later on, once that Matsuoka got off scot-free, he went ahead and did the same thing to me as he did to my parents and left my body in the alleyway where we met. No one ever found my body, I think he buried me to make sure I was really dead."

Yuu squeaks. "And you're..."

"I'm not alright about it, at all," he says, voice still steadily set in a monotone, betraying no emotion. "How my parents and I died isn't really a secret. The kids in the alleyway know about it, and I'm only telling you this so you can help me. I saved you - it'd be bad manners not to help me."

She nods, biting back _it's worse manners to be expecting something back_. Instead, she grasps his hand and runs her fingers across Hori's own, glancing down for a few seconds when he winces. "Sorry."

"It's fine, just-" He sucks in a breath, then exhales slowly, deliberately. "The glass shattered in the car. They cut my fingers on this hand quite a bit." He raises their intertwined hands in the air for Yuu to get a better look, missing the slightly flustered expression she gets, thankfully. "You can see the scars across them. They're not all pretty."

"I think they're okay," Yuu says, not really thinking. Then when her brain snaps back into motion, she almost wants to reach out into the air, grab the words she had just spoken, and shove them back into her mouth. "I mean... That is, uh..."

Hori turns away from their hands, lowering them slightly, to stare at her quizzically. Yuu averts her gaze, because getting caught up in those eyes isn't on her list of things to do (or is it? She's not entirely sure, either). "Sorry about that. It must have looked weird if anyone passed by, your hand in the air and all."

"Yeah, uh..." A pause, before they start walking again. Yuu hadn't even noticed they had stopped. "It's fine."

* * *

Hori is, in fact, correct, as they reach the police station within another ten minutes. Yuu reckons it must be dinnertime by now, since she had headed to the convenience store at seven-something. That, and she can hear her stomach complaining about the lack of food, but hopefully, the spirit by her side doesn't notice. When they reach the doors to the station, Hori is dutifully reciting in her ear, "Remember, try acting natural, adopt an accent if you can manage it, sound a little confused, maybe, and don't reply to me when I talk-"

"But you're talking to me _now_ , how am I supposed to ignore you especially if I won't be able to hear what the police are saying if you're going to be _that_ close to my ear-"

"Just _go with the plan_ , don't mess up or you'll be joining the stars-"

"Miss?" One of the men sorting papers looks up from his desk, looking over at Yuu confusedly. She starts, much to Hori's disapproval, but she quickly makes her way towards the man to avoid further embarrassment.

She clears her throat, trying to sound matter-of-fact, "Good evening, um- I just came here from the- countryside, and I'm looking for my uncle. I forgot the address he gave me, you see. Er, his name's-"

"Matsuoka Nagase," Hori hisses. "At this time, he should be around- thirty five years or so. Maybe forty."

"-Matsuoka Nagase, around thirty five years or older." She nods, trying not to sound as unnecessarily proud as she feels. "Can you help me find him?"

"Your uncle, huh?" the man muses, shuffling through some papers before arranging them neatly into a pile and pushing them to the side of his table. "Well, kid, it ain't exactly early right now. I'll find your uncle for you, but I'll have to tell you his address tomorrow morning, maybe 'round eight or nine. Just give me your phone number and I'll text you the results. How about that?"

"Sounds great. Thanks, mister," Yuu says, scribbling her number on the notepad the man gives her and bowing politely.

Yuu walks out of the station feeling quite satisfied with herself. Hori follows beside her, scratching the base of his already scarred thumb with his uninjured one. "At least this part of the plan worked out well, if you had messed up, it'd be hard to explain who exactly you were talking to and how you knew this person-"

"Hori-senpai, do you know the constellations?" Yuu interrupts, much to the brunet's disdain; from the corner of her eye, she can see his right eye twitch irritably. She suppresses a smile before continuing. "I've always wanted to learn about them, but I don't think I ever caught the hang of it, I always mix one thing up with the other..."

"They're easy if you know what you're looking at," Hori replies, craning his neck to look up at the twinkling sky. Many of the stars had been rendered practically invisible due to the city lights, but there were still some that shone above all. "There's a nice spot where you can see a lot of them, I think it's near your house..."

"Well, good. It looks like it's nearly eight, I'm really hungry, and if I come home any later than now, my parents are going to blow a fuse... you can show me constellations in my room," Yuu says cheerily, as if inviting a ghost over is nothing out of the ordinary. Hori raises an eyebrow, but nods wordlessly anyway, and Yuu tries not to think of the chance that the brunet is wondering just how far she and her sanity can get before Yuu starts suggesting she walk right over to Matsuoka Nagase and throw him off a building. (Admittedly, Hori would like that, but he'd rather that _he_ be the one to do the throwing. Yuu can do the walking-up-to.)

As expected, Yuu nearly gets her ears blown off by the sheer force of her mother's yells, and she's sent up to her room with a plate full of her dislikes, which just shows exactly how worried and/or enraged her mother must have been when Yuu hadn't come back. When Rin peeks into her sister's room to ask if she'd gotten the candy she had asked for, she sees Kashima Yuu looking out of her window, tracing constellations with her pointer finger moving as if being guided by one Hori Masayuki, who Kashima Rin does not see, but almost, almost feels.

(When Rin closes the door behind her, it is very fortunately timed precisely the same moment Yuu and Hori start arguing about whether or not Hori _does_ knows his constellations. The brunet irritably tells Yuu that _he's_ the one going to be joining the stars when he Ascends, and Yuu opens her mouth, then closes it, realizing that he'd said _when_ instead of _if_.

She rectifies her silence by stubbornly insisting that that could not _possibly_ be Scorpio, because _that's my zodiac and I'll know it when I see it and that's definitely not Scorpio, geez, Hori-senpai!_ Hori responds by grabbing a bottle of perfume and throwing it straight at Yuu's head, which is clearly a bad move, because she snatches it out of the air and sprays the spirit with _"_ _Lanvin Éclat d'Arpège"_ , effectively causing her nose to start itching and Hori to shout indignantly. When Rin hurriedly rushes back to peek in her sister's room in concern, all she sees is Yuu spraying that strange new perfume everywhere by her window, and Rin decides that it might be safer to let Nee-chan do whatever makes her happy.)

Hori leaves near midnight, but not after asking Yuu a question. "Hey, uh- Kashima."

"Hmm?"

"Why do you, you know, trust me so much? Like, I could be the spirit of a serial killer and I'm actually luring you to the person who does all the work for me. I could totally kill you right now if I wanted to. So... why are you so... trusting?"

Yuu pauses, letting that sink in. "I don't know. Doesn't it feel right?"

"Um..."

"I mean, it feels pretty natural around you, doesn't it? Like long-lost friends, or something like that."

Hori shrugs. "Maybe we met in a past life."

* * *

The next morning is, most fortunately, a Saturday. During normal Saturday mornings, Yuu would not be up until at least ten, but this is not a normal Saturday morning, for Yuu's phone buzzes at eight thirty sharp, and Yuu's friends are not up on Saturday mornings until at least ten, which simply proves that her friends are her friends for a reason. In any case, when Yuu grabs her phone (after, of course, ceremoniously tumbling off of her bed and landing with a painful _thump_ onto the floor) and checks her notifications with bleary, half-opened eyes, she sees an unfamiliar number giving her a _good morning, kid, here's your uncle's address_ , Matsuoka Nagase's address (which Yuu doesn't comprehend until a good two minutes), and a _did you know that your uncle's actually your aunt? LOL i think she had a change some five years ago, my workmate's good friends with her_ as a goodbye.

Yuu stares at the message for another three minutes, not actually registering much of it, before promptly falling asleep on her floor.

Hori arrives at nine, materializing right on her windowsill and perching on it like a bird, unlatching it and opening her window to allow the fresh breeze in. Unfortunately, while the fresh breeze is cool and "fresh", to an extent, because this is a city and cities are not typically complete without the stench of smoke and car exhaust to go along with it, there was also the unwelcome visitor known as sunlight.

On Saturday mornings, Yuu did not have to face the sunlight until at least ten, which was still a good hour away when she woke up screeching at the sunlight loud enough to put a banshee to shame. For the first time in quite a few years, Hori Masayuki opens his mouth and laughs. It's not a full-blown laugh, maybe somewhere more than a chuckle, but it's still a laugh. Hori Masayuki, who hasn't so much as cracked a smile in ages, laughs. Kashima Yuu, from underneath the covers that had fallen along with her some thirty minutes ago, looks up at the window and sees a boy her age laughing like he should be, and not the vengeful spirit of a deceased murder victim.

It is, if anything, certainly a welcome change. Yuu grins, amongst the mess of blankets, her hair all astray, and with dried drool sticking to her chin.

Sadly, the positive atmosphere dies away in a matter of minutes, which happens when someone in the room is dead and a spirit, and the other being someone who shouldn't even be seeing the other. When Yuu wakes up enough to drink some water and show Hori the text message, the brunet's face hardens once more into the expression Yuu supposes is his trademark stern look. "Actually a... woman? But Matsuoka's..."

Yuu shrugs, setting the glass of water down and stretching her arms, still dressed in her blue rabbit-graphic pajamas. "I don't know. It doesn't seem that important, does it? He's- well, I guess she's a she, now. She's still the one who-" she shivers involuntarily, "-who murdered you and your family, and all that."

Hori sighs, setting Yuu's phone down on the table and taking a seat on her bed. "Well, that's true. I definitely haven't forgotten that." He looks up at the wall clock, which shows that it's been ten minutes since he's visited. "Should we go already? It might do to get a headstart, he- she might not be awake enough to think as quick as when it's afternoon."

"Sure, if you'd let me change... well, I suppose there wouldn't really be anything to hide, would there, I'm flat as a board..."

Once Yuu fishes out a blouse and jeans from her closet and changes into them (making sure to bring a jacket along and zipping it up - maybe it'd provide some sort of protection if Matsuoka Nagase decides to get violent with her kitchen knife...), she leaves a note for her parents explaining that she's off to Chiyo-chan's house for a school project. The way to Matsuoka's house gets less and less welcome the further they walk, some inhabitants of nearby houses blatantly looking down at Yuu with scowls on their faces.

"Thirty-four... thirty-five... oh, thirty-six, this must be her," Yuu murmurs, before turning to look beside her at the suddenly paralyzed Hori, a blank expression on his face. "Hori-senpai... are you alright? I'm not, I know that much," she squeaks. She can feel her hands sweating as she wrings them nervously. "We can always... do this another day, you don't have to rush it and do it today, I understand-"

"I'm fine," Hori says sharply, massaging his temple. "I'm just- I was just thinking. We talked it over, right? What to say, when to say it, what to do if- _when_ she gets violent-"

"Yes, we did," Yuu interrupts, mostly because she doesn't want to hear anymore, simply too frightened now. The idea that she was steps away from the possibility that she might get killed, one doorbell away, one _sentence_ away- it caught up to her now, the fright and the nervousness and the thought that this might not be the smartest decision she's made in her whole life. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she reminds herself that even if she _does_ die today, she had bought four candy jars last night for Rin instead of two. That almost makes her relax. Almost. "S-Should I, Hori-senpai?"

Hori makes a noncommittal noise at the back of his throat, which Yuu presumes is some form of a yes. She swallows, reassures herself that Hori wouldn't let her get killed when she's gone this far for him, and rings the doorbell.

Three full minutes of nerve-wracking silence passes by, and Yuu is sorely tempted to turn right around, walk back down the street, and never go back to this part of the city ever again right when the door creaks open. A familiar, middle-aged woman greets them, a warm, if very obviously forced smile on her face. "Child! Welcome. What brings you here?"

"Oh, just... just passing by," Yuu says, and with a start, she realizes that this is the same woman from last night, the one who Yuu had accidentally yelled behind, the _teacher_. It looks like the woman comes to the same conclusion, too, because her eyes narrow in surprise and suspicion. "I just moved here, you see, thought I'd- er- visit the neighbors a bit, heard you teach in the same school I go to." Which isn't _technically_ a lie, because they hadn't been that far from Roman Academy when they had been walking along last night, and there's no reason this teacher shouldn't be teaching in that school, which is the most popular one in the city, or so Mother says. "You're... Matsuoka Nagase-sensei, right?"

"Yes, that's me," she says, her smile widening with obvious strain. "Well, really, just Matsu-sensei to my students. I mostly teach those in middle school, though I substitute for those in high school every now and then. Well, I can't have a visitor standing in my doorway for the whole day, can I, come on in..."

 _Matsu-sensei. Middle school_. When Matsuoka turns her back on Yuu, she shoots Hori a furtive glance, which the brunet returns, looking vaguely constipated, though likely for different reasons - a murderer had just invited a defenseless (kind of) high-schooler into her home is probably what the spirit is worrying about. Yuu, realizing that Hori could really care less about her little sister's teacher being the same person standing right in front of her, hurries inside with a polite bow and a thank-you that she clearly doesn't mean.

Then again, Yuu doubts Matsuoka Nagase means the you're-welcome, either, so they're even in that aspect, at the very least.

Matsuoka bustles off into the kitchen to make tea, which Yuu knows she'll be dumping in the nearby potted plant the first chance she gets. Once the teacher leaves the room, both living and dead start speaking rapid-fire, not stopping for the other, and Yuu only clams up to let Hori talk first because this _is_ his murderer's house.

" _Don't drink her tea!_ " is the first thing he shouts that Yuu can understand.

"I was already going to do that, I'm not _that_ stupid-"

"You really never know, Kashima, you've got to make sure she's not hiding a knife on her or the sort-"

"I think it'd be pretty hard to hide something shiny if all she's wearing are pajamas-"

"Wait, I can hear her talking to someone!" Hori hisses, and Yuu immediately sits up alertly, straining to hear the woman's voice. Hori nearly trips over himself trying to reach the kitchen, then comes inches away from falling on his face when he returns to Yuu's side. "She's talking to that Saki-kun guy again, I listened in, and _it's Nagasaki_ , the guy who robbed you in the alleyway-"

" _What!_ " Yuu whisper-yells, trying her best to keep her voice down, and ultimately failing, though she can barely give a damn by this point, all things considered. "She's _friends_ with that guy!? Great, if she decides to call him here to, I don't know, pummel me to bits, then it looks like we'd _both_ be vengeful spirits out for her blood!"

"She actually _is_ calling Nagasaki over here," Hori says, and continues when Yuu's mouth hangs open in shock, "She said the new kid he described to her the other day is here now and she's willing to bet you've, uh, 'found out' or the sort; I think that means you've found out that she's a murderer, which is actually pretty old news-"

"Well, I've _definitely_ got to get out of here _now_ , I only just narrowly escaped that big old thug thanks to you-"

"Child? Are you quite alright?"

Yuu whirls around to face Matsuoka, who's carrying a tray laden with two cups of steaming tea. She feels all too tempted to _actually_ drink it, considering that it's a very cold morning and Matsuoka's house seems, if possible, even colder than outside. "Thank you, Matsuoka-sensei, don't mind if I do..."

She pretends to sip her tea before setting the cup back on the table, pretend-sighing in content. "Thank you for your hospitality, Sensei. I was meaning to ask you about something I heard, actually, I thought you might know about this, since you were supposedly involved in the incident, if what my mother told me wasn't mistaken." There were so many lies falling out of her mouth at that moment that it felt like it took all of her willpower to prevent her nose from elongating. Without bothering to wait for the woman's answer, she barrels on, uncomfortably aware that she's being fantastically impolite right now under normal circumstances. "Apparently, there was a really bad car accident on-"

"This same street," Hori supplies.

"-the same street you live in, and that there was a trial about it. Do you perhaps know if there really was a culprit? It looks like any normal car accident to me." Yuu finishes it off with a frown, which she feels particularly proud about.

"Oh, yes, that car crash," Matsuoka muses, nodding sagely. "Yes, I still do feel horribly guilty about it, don't think I was looking at the road straight. But-" and here, she suddenly adopts the most frightening look any middle-aged woman can possible get, "-you likely already know about that, don't you, Kashima Yuu?"

"What?" squeaks Yuu, unconsciously backing away slightly. Beside her, she can hear Hori making a noise not unlike a dying animal. (Well, a _dead_ animal, since humans are technically animals.) "I... Who?"

"Don't play stupid with me," Matsuoka growls, now standing up and knocking her own cup sideways, spilling scalding hot tea all over the table. Yuu backs away even further, slowly getting to her feet and preparing to lunge towards the door as soon as she gets the chance. "I know you, kid. I've been keeping an eye on you for a while now. When you moved here, you looked like any normal high schooler, but when you started hanging out by the graveyard - that normally ain't something teenage girls do these days, do they? So I watched you, yes, ever closely, because you can never afford to be too safe. And then you started talking to the air, to no one in particular, asking how they died, asking about how this city was a hundred, two hundred, five hundred years ago... no normal teenage girl does that. You should have kept a closer eye on your surroundings, fool. You can see ghosts, and you can touch them and talk to them, and then you go ahead and do it in plain sight - are you a complete and utter idiot? Keeping an eye on you and expanding my theory was easier, so much easier than I thought!" She throws her head back and lets out a mad cackle, and Yuu takes her chance, making a breakneck run towards the door with all the strength she can put in her legs. She throws the door open and makes to make a leap outside when she slams against the chest of a man who, while she has never seen his face, she knows all too well.

Nagasaki, because there is no doubt that this man could be any other man, guffaws at the stunned Yuu who had fallen to the floor on her rear, dizzy. "Well, well, look who's here! It's the freak, talking to ghosts. What was that you said when we first met? "There's a ghost behind you"... hah! Rubbish. You could have thought of _something_ better than that."

"Get up, come on, I can distract him while you run," Hori hisses, trying to help Yuu up as best as he can without making it seem as though he's there. He fails, as is obvious when behind them, Matsuoka makes an interested noise.

"What's this? Is someone helping her up now? Her little ghost friend, perhaps?"

Yuu stumbles up by herself, looking back and forth between Matsuoka and Nagasaki. One of them is a murderer who got away with their crime; the other is an alleyman, had robbed her in the past, and can very likely rob her again and kill her for good. "Hori-senpai-"

" _Hori!?_ " Matsuoka shrieks, and Yuu instantly realizes that speaking the name out loud, even if she _is_ being quiet, may not be the smartest decision to make in front of the murderer of the entire Hori family. "Who- Who is it!? Why are you here!?"

"I'll knock Nagasaki down and you can get away-" Hori starts-

" _No_ , this is your chance, you can finally- you know, confront Matsuoka!"

"What's important right now is that you get away with all limbs intact, for the stars' sake, you're not a spirit like me-"

"Yes, but we're _already_ here, you can't just-"

Yuu is interrupted, not by Hori, but by a crushing blow to her back. Her face makes a very bad impact against the floor, and she's pretty sure _something_ is stepping on her right now, because her back, already aching after having been forced to the floor through there, is now undergoing a very painful process of being _stepped on_. "Ow-!"

"Arguing with your little ghost friend before you're going to be killed doesn't sound very ambitious. You should at least try running for your life," Nagasaki sneers, his breath reeking of stale cigarettes and alcohol; Yuu isn't particularly surprised, though she doesn't think she can feel anything other than pain at the moment. "Yo, Matsu-sensei- what now? I can do whatever I want with her, right? I'm hoping to do what I didn't get to do the other day..."

"Keep her here. I want her to tell me who this "Hori-senpai" of hers is," Matsuoka snarls, looking around the room as if expecting the brunet to materialize in her field of vision if she asks properly. "Which one is it, girl? The father? The mother? Hell- the _child?_ "

"I didn't bring anyone with me," Yuu manages to choke out from under Nagasaki's very formidable foot. "Really-!"

" _You lie!_ "

"I wasn't talking to anyone! I'm telling you!"

Matsuoka opens her mouth, likely to make another comment along the lines of " _Lies, lies, lies!_ ", but Hori swoops right over to her and plunges his hands straight through the woman's neck.

For normal living humans, being passed through by a spirit doesn't mean anything, except for perhaps a momentary shiver for no apparent reason. However, being passed through by a spirit with the explicit intention to cause much more than a small cold is something that hurts quite a bit. This applies to Matsuoka and Hori at the moment, because while Yuu certainly does not have the greatest vantage point, being forced down on the floor by a man likely twice her age and weight, she can still hear the screams that come from the woman in front of her and then a _thud_ as Matsuoka's body falls to the floor, unconscious. Even Nagasaki seems surprised, stepping away from the fallen teacher and subsequently allowing Yuu to roll away and stand up shakily next to Hori, who is still glaring down at the fainted teacher.

"What the hell? What are you doing!?" Nagasaki spits, backing away even further, looking around as if expecting a ghost to come tumbling out of one of the walls.

"It's nothing personal," Yuu mutters, glancing down at the teacher's body to make absolutely she sure she isn't going to be getting up for as long as the two of them are still in the house. "If you let us- er, me. If you let me pass without hurting me, I promise I won't... do the same thing as I did to her."

Hori kicks Matsuoka's leg. His foot still passes through her knee harmlessly, but the woman shudders and starts wailing like a baby. Nagasaki steps away one foot behind the other, until he turns around and crashes through the front door, leaving the poor thing hanging off by its hinges. After several tense seconds, where both living and spirit wait to see if he comes back with reinforcements, and he doesn't, Yuu collapses onto the floor and Hori lets out a sigh of relief.

"So- So is it over?" Yuu whispers, tucking her knees under her chin and inching away from the shivering, screaming body. "I mean, if we can get her to just shut up over there-"

And before she knows it, she's pinned to the wall by Matsuoka Nagase, leering face inches away from her own, sharp, yellow-nailed hands digging into her arms, right through the thick fabric of her jacket. "Shut up? _Shut up?_ Girl, you underestimate me. As if _I_ am about to be taken down by some shrimp like you! My wife died in a fire the Hori family caused, and so I paid them back! Isn't it only fair? Isn't it only _just_ , only _right_ that they be taken down like they did to my wife!?"

"Stop- Stop it, go _away_ -"

"I got away with it, and I suppose I just couldn't stop there," Matsuoka hisses, voice now lowering to a dangerously soft volume. "I got away with the Kawasaki family, and with the Minamoto family, and I am not going to be found out this time by a measly little high schooler like you. I teach your little sister's class, but you already know that, don't you? What's her name- Kashima Rin? That's right. I could kill you right now if I wanted to, but then I would have to go ahead and kill the rest of your family, too, for completion's sake. And little Rin-chan is such a sweet girl... you wouldn't want her entrails dangling from the ceiling of your home, _would you!?_ "

Something flares up inside Yuu, and with all the strength she can muster after having been taken down by a man nearly twice her size, she lifts both her legs and slams them against the teacher's chest. Matsuoka cries out, pushed away to skid against the wooden floor, passing by Hori in the process. The brunet lunges towards her and sinks his hands into her already injured chest, but Matsuoka simply staggers to her feet and rushes up into the second floor of her house with alarming speed. Yuu shoots Hori a look, and him to her, before they both zoom up the stairs, Hori simply materializing and de-materializing, visible next to her for one moment then somehow looking like he had teleported three steps higher.

When they reach the second floor, a quaint bedroom greets them - or, more accurately, it would have been quaint had it not been for the myriad of skeletons hanging from the ceiling, suspended by various ropes or wires. Some haven't even properly decomposed yet, one child still dripping blood on the stained floor, ten different holes in his chest from where a knife had likely been inserted none too gently. Yuu feels just about ready to turn back, head down the stairs, out the door, and cower under the safe covers of her bed when Hori rushes in front of her to grab a frighteningly large knife from Matsuoka, who had been speeding towards her with the knife outstretched, and throws the knife out of the nearby open window.

Matsuoka jumps back, snarling, her resemblance to a cornered animal now reaching the stratosphere. "So you did bring one of your ghost friends... Tell me, who came back to take revenge on me? Sweet little Yukio? That delinquent Mari? Or, one of my very first-" she sneers, showing chipped, yellowed teeth, "-Masayuki-kun?"

Hori _lunges_. He throws himself, his whole body onto the woman, his expression one of pure rage. Yuu makes a terrified noise and makes to back away quickly, but just hits her head on the ribcage of a skeleton. Turning her gaze back onto Matsuoka and Hori reveals that Hori's managed to drive the woman to the edge of the staircase, his eyes now darker than the night sky, darker than anything Yuu's seen before that she's sure the teacher sees them as she screams and shouts taunts and insults, _your family was a failure and if anything you should be thanking me, thanking me for killing them and for killing_ you-

 _Thud. Thud. Thud. Crack._

Matsuoka's limp, lifeless body remains still at the foot of the staircase, her neck twisted monstrously, looking almost separated from the rest of her body. Yuu stares over at her from the railing, then immediately averts her gaze because really, throwing up isn't totally high on her to-do list. When she looks back, looking around for the spirit she had gone through this ordeal with, there is nobody there.

* * *

It's nighttime when Yuu sees Hori again, or what's left of Hori, anyway. She's already dressed in her pajamas, sitting on the edge of her bed and still feeling vaguely sick when she hears her window curtain fluttering. She hadn't left her window open.

Hori Masayuki is perched on the windowsill, in the same manner as when he had come during the morning. Yuu doesn't say anything, but she does stand up and stare at him incredulously. Then, after several silent seconds,

"Sorry for dragging you into that," the brunet whispers, even if there's no real need to.

Yuu shrugs halfheartedly. She figures it doesn't really matter by this point, and lifts her gaze to make eye contact with the spirit. His eyes aren't as dark as when he had been advancing on Matsuoka, and they've reverted back to the dark beauty she doesn't think she'll ever be able to get enough of. Emerald and gold adorn the edges of his eyes. "It's alright," she murmurs, even if she feels the complete opposite of it.

"I can tell it isn't."

"You're not wrong, I guess."

"Sorry."

"It's..." She makes to say 'alright' again, but figures she might as well be honest. "Not alright, but I'll manage."

A minute passes. "Sorry," Hori says, again, and Yuu understands that if she had been in his situation, she probably wouldn't be able to stop apologizing for something that can't be fixed either.

She nods. "Are you going to Ascend, now? You've avenged your parents' death, and yourself, so..."

"I guess," Hori mutters. "It feels like something's been lifted off my chest. This afternoon, I found myself getting lighter. That's what you usually feel when you know you're about to Ascend. We only ever do during the night, though. I thought I might as well spend the last of my minutes here."

"Honored."

"Sorry" slips out of his mouth. Yuu finds herself watching his lips instead of his eyes, which she can think are just as beautiful. Then, "Do you want me to teach you more of the constellations?"

She doesn't say anything, but nears her window until she's standing right in front of it, next to Hori, who turns around and lays his hand on hers. Yuu almost says something, like "sorry" or "I'm happy for you" or maybe "thanks", but nothing comes out, and so she closes her mouth. She lifts her hand halfheartedly, and Hori takes it and guides her fingers across the night sky.

("Okay… Okay so that's, that one's Sagittarius, right?"

"Yeah. See, those are the wings, and that's the main body…"

"Wait, are you _sure?_ Where's his head?"

"I'm _sure_ , Kashima."

Pause. "But I don't see his head."

"Your reasoning for telling me that Scorpio isn't Scorpio is because that's your sign and you'd know it's Scorpio. Well, guess what. I'm a Sagittarius."

"… Oh, _fine_.")

Kashima Yuu is still tracing stars across the sea of black when her hand is the only one there. She closes her window and just manages to catch a flash of light streaking downwards before she draws the curtains.

* * *

 **Tomorrow: Touch. (You can see more notes about this fic on my AO3!)**

 _ **Slacker, 6/3/15**_


	4. sending you a signal tonight

**HoriKashi Week, Day 4: Touch. Title from Speed of Love - Owl City. Also, this is redundant, but the past two chapters (including this) are all AUs. (2: Medieval, 3: Ghosts, 4: Officemates). The prompt on Tumblr was "Stop stealing my pens. It's hard enough to find them."**

* * *

"Hey. Hey, you- wake up."

Yuu blinks bleary eyes open, lifting her head from her drooled-on papers lazily. "Who are you?" she asks, but it mostly comes out as "Wh're y'?"

A brunet stands over her, just beside her chair, arms crossed and expression not looking pleasant. "You're the pen thief," he accuses, sounding almost proud. "You're the one who's been getting my pens, aren't you?"

"Pens?" Yuu rubs her eyes with the back of her hand, wincing when she notices the stinging pain in her right one. Eyelashes. "I... hm... I don't know what you're talking 'bout."

He frowns, and Yuu is almost startled enough to open her eyes all the way, because damn, who is this person and why had Yuu never noticed him before with his cuteness? "Oh. So you haven't been getting my pens?"

"Well, if you really want to, I could go down and buy you some that cost maybe thirty cents," Yuu says, trying to see how far she could go before the brunet eventually got creeped out and went away.

"That's not it." He sighs and looks away, giving Yuu a nice view of the side of his face. "I was sure you were the one who's been getting all my good pens. Are you sure you didn't get a blue ballpoint pen off the ground last week?"

"You've been searching for one pen for a week?"

"No, I'm looking for _pens_ ," he corrects, sounding impatient, as if he couldn't believe he was wasting precious time chatting with a random stranger about the number of pens he had lost. "The first time I lost one, I just went out and bought a new one, but that got lost, too. I've lost four pens and two dollars and eighty cents."

"Those are some expensive pens you're getting."

"I couldn't have lost them. I put those pens in a pen holder and anyway, I don't just lose the same kind of pen four times in a row in one week." He's mostly talking to himself by this point, but Yuu lets him, mostly because she's still too tired to bother, and partly because his voice sounds rather pleasant. She can indulge herself, right? "So I thought someone was getting them when I got up from my desk, and I started asking people if they knew anyone who needed a pen or four. They said you're a constant pen-loser."

"I'm glad to know I've set up my reputation as an official pen-loser," Yuu replies, resting her chin on her arms once more. "Um, yeah, I lose pens faster than I work. But at least I have the initiative to go down and buy ones rather than steal from someone I've never seen before." She raises an eyebrow, just to make herself look more convincing. "I don't even know your name. Do we even have mutual friends?"

"I got desperate," he says, shrugging. "No one else near my table said they got my pens, so I went a little further here. I'm Hori Masayuki, by the way."

Yuu pauses. "I've heard about you from Chiyo-chan. You're the background designer, aren't you?"

"And you're Kashima Yuu," Hori says. "You help with the script, right?"

"And secondary voice acting," Yuu adds offhandedly, blinking in surprise when the brunet looks almost shocked at the news. "Somethin' wrong, Hori-kun? Oh, by the way, Seo-sensei loses pens pretty bad, but she hasn't been asking to borrow mine recently, so maybe you should ask her."

"You're a voice actress?" Hori asks, completely ignoring the rest, which is kind of impressive considering he had come to the floor below him for the express reason of looking for his pens and then passes a promising lead over discussing the job of a person he's just met. "I didn't know... wait, so you were the one who voiced Waka one time when Mita couldn't make it?"

"Oh, yeah, I did that," Yuu mutters, not really believing someone she's never met remembers that. Waka's voice actress, Mita, had suddenly fainted after two straight sleepless nights in the middle of the voice recording, and so Yuu had had to fill in and say three last lines for her. Other than that, her voice acting was limited to Onlooker #3, Oze's Nurse, and Mamiko's Youngest Sister, who had never showed up again after five minutes in Episode 7. "Well, it wasn't really anything important, but thanks for remembering. I'm mostly just here because people like me, since Nozaki is the one who actually does any work with the script. I'm just the one who sends it to the director."

Hori shakes his head, looking almost disappointed. "Whatever you say. Wait, you did say something about-?"

"Seo-sensei," Yuu says, deciding to stand up and stretch her arms. Well, it's not like she had been getting any work done before, either. "She's around here somewhere! As a special service, I'll lead you to her."

"Thanks, but-"

"No buts! Anyway, I was getting bored just sitting here. She's probably the one who's been getting all those pens of yours. What color were your pens again?"

"... Blue," Hori says hesitantly, as if he's not entirely sure if he should trust this person. (Yuu can't blame him. They _have_ just met.)

"Oh. Her favorite is yellow, but I guess she likes blue too." She pauses, and tries to remember if Seo had shown any particular interest in the color blue. Then she remembers Wakamatsu. "Yeah, she likes blue."

"Okay," Hori replies, still sounding doubtful, but follows her to the next row of desks, where Seo usually hangs out. "I think I worked with her once. Do you know-?"

"Oh, yeah, she's the voice actress for Oze-kun's sister," Yuu says, absentmindedly twirling one of her pencils in her fingers. (She doesn't catch Hori staring, which is probably good.) "But I got the feeling that if Oze-kun was a girl, she'd be the voice actress for her... him... you know. Ah, and she's really good at singing, and she's giving me lessons!"

"Is that why you call her '-sensei'?"

"Yes! Well, she's not exactly a very good teacher. But she's great in singing, so if I just listen to her, I should be able to get better..."

"I don't think singing works that way," Hori says slowly, enunciating his words clearly as if talking to a child.

Yuu shrugs. "I can dream."

* * *

"Oh, pens, huh?" Seo stares at the brunet's face calmly, before saying, "So you're the one who has all those nice blue pens? Thanks for those. I really get too lazy to get up and borrow some of Kashima's, and your table's a little closer, so you're pretty cool." She flashes him a thumbs-up, which just makes Hori more irritated.

"If you really want, you can just _ask_ me. Better yet, you can head down to the bookstore yourself and buy some of those blue pens so you don't need to steal mine," Hori says, looking seconds away from grabbing all four of his pens from Seo's desk and marching back to his table.

"Or you can get the yellow ones," Yuu calls from Chiyo's desk, which is just beside Seo's.

"Nobody sells the yellow ones anymore," Seo says, sighing solemnly and picking one of Hori's blue pens up with her pointer and middle finger. "Also, I think I'm getting attached to the blue ones."

"I'll buy you half a dozen if you really want them," Hori pleads. "Just stop stealing my own, would you!?"

"That's no way to talk to a voice actress." Seo sighs. "But, okay. You can buy me five. And if you find a yellow one, buy two for me, would you? Then I'll stop getting yours."

The brunet makes a noise not unlike a very angry child, but manages to reign his temper in and nods stiffly. "Fine. Fine, alright, okay, whatever."

Yuu moves toward them curiously. "You're going to buy a pen, Hori-kun?"

"Pens," he corrects. He makes a stiff goodbye to the blonde, who grins victoriously, and walks over to the stairs. " _Are_ there any yellow pens in the bookstore?"

"Well, there are, but their ink's always blue." Yuu pauses. "Wait, that's awesome! I thought Seo-sensei knew about those, but I guess not! Hori-kun, we should buy those, don't you think?"

"Huh? Wait, you're coming with me?"

"I was running out of notepads to doodle on."

The bookstore across the street is frequented by the staff of the animation studio, most likely due to its strategic location and the fact that it sold nearly everything the staff needed, even the sorts of things one normally wouldn't even find in a bookstore. When Yuu and Hori enter, the security guard nods at both of them in recognition, which is almost mildly embarrassing. Yuu heads straight to where the notepads are and starts searching for her usual one immediately - the paper has a nice texture and it's quite addicting to write on even if she shouldn't be - before realizing that a notebook might work better, though it would take up more space. She ponders over her choices a bit when someone says, "Hey."

Yuu is _almost_ surprised, but being around Seo Yuzuki kind of dulls surprise a lot when you're on your guard twenty four seven. "Hori-kun! Did you find the pens and everything?"

The brunet shrugs. "Not the yellow ones."

"That's fine, I know where they are." Yuu nonchalantly takes Hori's wrist to lead him there, and that's where everything stops.

Something _passes_ between them. Maybe only Yuu feels it, because Hori's expression doesn't change when she touches him, but there was something there. It was almost like a kind of spark, like when someone touches you by accident and there's static, but this one? This one, Yuu thinks, is a little more than that. It's almost frightening. She rips her hand away as if her fingers had burst into flames, and Hori looks up at her for a moment, confused. "Something wrong?"

"... Nothing," Yuu says, trying not to look too suspicious. When Hori shrugs and gestures for her to start walking, she totters off towards the section she just vaguely remembers are where the other, almost-sold-out pens are, still gripping her hand like it's her lifeline.

 _That's happened before, hasn't it?_ Yuu muses. _With Chiyo-chan and Nozaki, Chiyo-chan told me she felt this kind of thing too... maybe it's just nerves... but why would I be nervous? We're just, uh, acquaintances in a bookstore... buying stuff for work..._

Yuu turns around as subtly as possible to catch a glance of Hori's face, his attention directed towards some fiction books. She tries not to stare too much, and swiftly turns to face her front when the brunet's head shifts slightly to her direction.

 _Just a little admiring,_ she tells herself, because it's true, it's totally true. _Nothing like a, an_ infatuation _or something stupid like that._

(Of course, she knows she's just fooling herself, but nobody needs to know that except the very back of her head.)

Yuu finds the yellow pens easily and lets Hori grab a few, testing them on some sample paper to prove that they _do_ have blue ink despite the yellow colors, which the brunet still thinks is rather strange. Without much thinking, Yuu gets one of Hori's blue pens, too, just because. Throughout this, she tries scrutinizing every situation wherein she can look for an excuse to touch the brunet, even if just a brief little poke. She _could_ try to play bored during the line and repeatedly poke his cheek or touch his hair, which wouldn't be hard, considering there's a significant difference in height between them, but nothing happens and she just manages to get Hori angry. Then again, his temper had already been running short since the encounter with Seo, so maybe Yuu should keep her distance a little, figuratively speaking.

The walk back to the office isn't as long as Yuu hopes it could be, mainly because she just wants to see if she can push her luck a bit. Saying the ultimate line would work if she was about seven years old, but as a working twenty-five year old adult? Poor guy would probably think she was preying on him. Nevertheless, she doesn't have much to lose, seeing as she's never seen him in her life, which probably means their tables are rather far apart.

"Hori-kun?"

"What?"

"Wanna hold hands?"

Hori nearly stops walking on the pedestrian street with the traffic light flashing single-digit numbers. A car honks impatiently. "... _What?_ "

"Wanna ho-"

"I heard you fine!" They rush along towards the sidewalk before the cars run them over. "We just met, you know. If we _hold hands_ or anything-" he says it like it's some sort of disease, "-what do you think people are going to say?"

"We're in public, Hori-kun," Yuu replies, swinging her arms childishly for lack of anything to do with them. "It's not like anyone's gonna recognize us or something!"

Hori raises an eyebrow, but grabs her wrist anyway, effectively stopping Yuu from swinging her arms around like some lunatic. She also loses her balance, but she manages to catch herself before she spills out on the pavement. "There. We're 'holding hands'." He practically rolls his eyes to the next dimension.

"T-That was unexpected!" Yuu yelps, straightening her clothes as best as she can with one hand. "But that's not my hand, that's my wrist," she says, though it doesn't look like Hori hears her. And if he had, he probably ignored that. He does, however, notice her neck. Yuu blinks. "Yyyes?"

"Your collar's crooked," he says, lets go of her wrist, and steps in front of her to fix her clothes like it's totally normal for two acquaintances to act like a Goddamn married couple. Yuu makes a squeak that might have been a 'wow' or a 'help' and keeps still, trying not to breathe too loud or look too constipated or something to that effect. When Hori steps back to start walking towards the office again, Yuu only follows because of habit. They're already taking the steps to the second floor when Yuu remembers that breathing helps keep people alive.

"Here're your pens," Hori grumbles, shoving the seven promised pens to Seo's face. The blonde looks at them appraisingly, before picking one of the yellow ones and tries it out on a spare piece of paper. Her face lights up at the blue ink like a kid with a new toy and immediately grabs the rest of the pens, dumping them on her table carelessly.

"I didn't actually think you'd do that," she says, her voice singsong. "Thanks for these yellow ones! Yoo... I think I hit the jackpot." She scribbles a small drawing of a dog on a corner of the script for Episode 9, then nods, apparently satisfied. "O-kay. You can go now."

Hori blinks. "... What? What about my pens!?"

"Huh? I never said I'd give you your pens back." Seo places her new ones in her pen holder, but continues doodling little animals all over the script with the yellow-blue pen. "I just said I'd stop _getting_ them. So now I've got eleven nice pens. Thanks, Hori-chan."

The brunet looks ready to blow a fuse, or maybe lift a chair and throw it halfway across the country. Yuu clears her throat and hurriedly steers him away and back to her desk before Hori can break a table in half. "Hori-kun-"

"I'm going to the bookstore myself, this time," he mutters, turning on his heel towards the elevator.

"Eh? What? Wait-!" Yuu rummages in the plastic bag containing her notepads for a moment, before retrieving the blue pen she had gotten for seemingly no reason. (Well, there's a reason now, so she might as well!) "Here, Hori-kun! I don't think I have an actual need for this pen, so you can have it! It's the same as the one you like, right?"

Hori stares at her incredulously. "Uh, really? Are you sure?"

"Sure I'm sure!" Anyway, she has too many pens in her pen holder already, though most of them are out of ink and she just keeps forgetting to throw them away to make space for new ones. "It'd probably do you more good than me, after all." And then, before she can lose whatever courage she had been able to muster, she grabs her brand new notepad, rips the plastic off, and scrawls a number on it, tearing the sheet of paper off and handing it to Hori with the pen, smiling like the sun and hoping she isn't sweating as hard as her palms are. "And, you know. Here."

The brunet takes the pen and paper, holding them like they're solid gold. (For a moment, their fingers brush, and Yuu tries to pretend something akin to a hundred million lightning bolts _didn't_ just pass through her entire body.) "Uh," he manages, before his entire face goes red and he stuffs the paper in his shirt pocket hastily. "Uh, like. Yeah. Thanks, I guess."

Yuu hopes their faces don't match. "Yeah. You're, um, you're welcome." She swallows and coughs in her fist, then continues. "I'll see you around, then, Hori-kun." A pause. "Wait, what'd Seo-sensei call you again?"

Hori turns on his heel and speed-walks to the elevator with admirable speed. Yuu laughs in his wake. "Okay! Call me sometime, Hori-chan!"

* * *

 **Tomorrow: Excuses. (You can find the notes for this on my AO3!)**

 _ **Slacker, 6/4/15**_


	5. you're the only one who needs to know

**HoriKashi Week, Day 5: Excuses. Title from Dirty Little Secret - All-American Rejects. TW: Homophobic slur below.**

* * *

"Don't you think there's something off with Kashima today?"

Mita looks up, then promptly looks back down at her copy of the play. "She looks fine to me. Maybe she's just wearing different shoes today."

"Speaking of shoes, she asked to borrow mine yesterday, I think," Hori mutters, resting his chin on the edge of his palm. "Obviously I wasn't going to go barefoot to the station, so I went and got her some spare girl's shoes from the storage. She should have returned it. I... think." He narrows his eyes. "Why the hell did she have to do that? It's not like her own shoes had gotten, like, torn apart or anything."

"You never know with Kashima-kun," Mita says slowly, looking over some notes. "One of her fangirls might have wanted to keep her to herself and ripped her shoes so that that one fangirl can carry Kashima-kun home, so on and so forth..."

Hori gives her a long, incredulous stare. The worst part is that he can almost believe it.

Mita shakes her head and flips through the pages in her folder. "I was talking to Mikoshiba-kun the other day. Maybe a little too much. Hori-chan, is this supposed to be 'feel' or 'peel'? 'I peel her skin slowly' sounds like it's verging dangerously into serial killer territory."

"It's peel."

" _What?_ "

"The prince is going to come into the scene dramatically and save her, right?"

After Mita nods and goes silent once more, this time poring over the script with a critical eye (and perhaps a hint of nervousness), Hori returns his attention to Kashima standing a few ways away from them. As always, she's entertaining the fangirls who had come to visit her during rehearsal - normally, Hori would have shooed them away, but they _were_ taking a break, and he _was_ pretty tired. Not to mention that this gave him an opportunity to observe the usually perfect Kashima Yuu.

She is, of course, looking perfectly fine to anyone who doesn't know her as well as Hori does. She's still using cheesy, and if used by any other person, awkward lines she probably nicked off from their last play ("My Cinderella, do not worry yourself about how you look to others. To me, you are the most perfect darling I have seen; a goddess among all!" was a line that was edited out from _The Headstrong Prince and the Clumsy Maid_ due to how none of the girls could reply properly after Kashima had said it), and her movements are as clear and precise as ever. To anyone else, Kashima would simply look her normal self, or as normal as normal could be for someone like her.

(Not that she is normal. At all. But Hori likes her just the way she is, even if it does cause him great pain very often.)

Nevertheless, there's still something distinctly, well, _wrong_ with Kashima. It isn't her appearance, because Hori would definitely have noticed it right away, so it can only be how she's acting. Her mannerisms don't seem to have differed - she's still using overly flashy and glamorous actions, for one thing - so Hori would have to look closer...

Maybe it really is her shoes. They're a different shade of brown today, and they look a little dirtier than the usual. His watch shows that it's already been fifteen minutes, so Hori stands up and gathers the club's attention, subsequently sending the fangirls fleeing (but only after a dramatic rendition of the runaway scene in _You Are the Only One_ , which Hori still thinks could have done better with the title).

It's only after rehearsal when everyone else is leaving that Hori has the chance to corner Kashima and ask if something's wrong. She'd dodged him all throughout the club meeting, dashing off each time he'd come close with an exclamation of "Ah, Koubuki-kun, that's a great outfit!" or "Mori-chan, these lines need a little fixing, don't they?", so on and so forth.

Thankfully enough, the president found an excuse to make Kashima stay after rehearsal after she had spilt a bucket of paint over a very important set. It was bound to happen anyway, so Hori wasn't too surprised, but he _had_ seized the chance to make her stay. Maybe a little too excitedly.

"Kashima-"

"Senpai!" Kashima squeaks, looking mortified at being addressed to by the brunet. Hori would feel offended if he hadn't already gotten used to it. "Great day it is today, huh!? S-Shame I have to stay here with the sun shining and everything! Ahaha!"

"It's raining pretty badly outside," Hori muses, looking out the window before drawing the curtains. "I didn't bring an umbrella today, either. Well, whatever..."

Kashima looks like the apocalypse had come.

Hori sighs, leaning back against the window and gesturing for her to continue painting the trees over again. The actress does so hurriedly, likely for an excuse to avoid eye contact with him. "Let me do that again... Kashima."

"Yes...!?"

"What's wrong with you now?" He frowns, crossing his arms. "You've been acting kind of... weird. I can't put a finger on it, but there's something different to you today."

"D-Different? No way!" She laughs, and it's such a hollow, fake laugh that it's painful to listen to. "Isn't it just my shoes, Senpai? I'm wearing different ones today, did you notice?" There's a desperate edge to her voice that Hori knows surfaces whenever the actress is trying to hide something. And she is, without doubt, _definitely_ hiding something.

"If there really isn't anything wrong, then why are you acting like there is?" Hori asks dryly.

"Oh- Just- Tired!"

"Right..."

With a sigh, Kashima swipes her brush a few more times halfheartedly, before stopping entirely and simply staring down at the set. "It's- It's _silly_ , it's not really anything that should be getting to me, and it's nothing important, so don't worry, Sempai!" She turns to look up at the brunet, smiling weakly and looking the very epitome of not alright.

Hori, meanwhile, is fairly sure that _he's_ the very epitome of worried. "Well, whatever it is, I'd at least like to hear it before you go off and label it as 'nothing important' when it clearly is."

Kashima shrugs and says no more. After a short silence, punctuated by the pattering of rain on the window, she speaks up. "Um... yes, well... yesterday, when I asked to borrow your shoes, it was 'cause... 'cause someone wrote on _my_ shoes, you see, and I couldn't go home like that!" She hurries on before Hori can interrupt, because the brunet is already opening his mouth before he realizes it. "So I went home in different shoes, and I think whoever it was used permanent marker to write it, 'cause I couldn't get the... stuff off. So I wore different shoes today, and there's nothing wrong at all, it's perfectly fine, it's not important at all!"

"What did they write?" Hori manages to grind out through gritted teeth, gripping the window sill so tightly that he's half expecting it to crack under his fingers.

"Nothing," Kashima says evasively, her normally bright eyes dimmed, having turned into a murky green, yellow tingeing the edges. "I mean, not _nothing_ , definitely, but, like, I don't know, nothing you need to concern yourself with, Senpai, nothing I should be bothered by..."

"Just tell me what it is, Kashima, or I'll follow you home and find out whether you like it or not."

Red floods her cheeks like a dam breaking. "H-H-H-Hori-chan-senpai! It's nothing... really..." She sighs. "Sorry, I mean... It's really... Well, if you really want to..." She drags her bag towards herself and starts rummaging through it. Hori raises an eyebrow until Kashima raises a pair of shoes that he recognizes are her normal ones. Then he sees the black writing scribbled all over it, so much that most of it is crammed tight. The only word Hori needs to see is _FUCKING FAG_ bolded multiple times over before he walks right over, snatches the pair of shoes, and just barely resists throwing them in the nearby trash can. Instead, he squints at the writing, then immediately draws away when he realizes that _he knows this handwriting_.

"This is _Koubuki_ ," Hori snarls, now sure he is inches, _millimeters_ close to crushing the shoes he's holding into dust. "What the hell was that bastard- I can't _believe_ -"

"Koubuki-kun?" Kashima blinks. "Oh, that must be why he went to the restroom when he saw me..."

"And you're not _angry?_ " Hori snaps, then immediately reigns in his own fury bubbling up inside him lest he make Kashima feel any worse. "I always thought he acted fishy about the costumes, I'm pretty sure he's the one who ripped your best prince one last month, too-"

"But it's really nothin' to worry about, Hori-senpai," Kashima says, setting the paintbrush down carelessly somewhere on the set and leaving a green blob where it should be brown. It's something to say about Hori's anger that he doesn't even call her out for it (though he does cast a disapproving eye upon it). "I mean, I don't want him to get in trouble just 'cause of this-"

"Just? _Just?_ "

"Yes!" Kashima squeaks. "Really, it's nothing to be worried about, and he's a really good costume designer for everyone, so there's no reason to get angry at him now! Senpai, if you're really mad about it, then _I'll_ talk to him!"

"You'll- what?" He pauses, staring at her, his surprise taking over slightly. Out of all the things she could have said, that was one of the things he hadn't been expecting. (Just one of, mind you.) "And what are you going to say?"

"Er- to not do that again?"

Hori places her shoes down on the floor, staring down at them, not really focusing on the ( _ugly, untrue, unreal_ ) words scribbled upon them. "You know what? Fine. Okay. Whatever. You can stay that way, but you throw these shoes away and buy some new ones as soon as you can, because I can't stand the thought of those being in your house. Why the hell'd you bring them here anyway?"

"I didn't want Rin-chan to see 'em," Kashima mutters, avoiding his gaze.

The brunet grumbles something under his breath, before grabbing the paintbrush and throwing it inside a cabinet carelessly and slamming the lid of the paint can with unnecessary force. "We don't need this until next week. You can do it then. Let's just- just go home."

Kashima jumps up, eyes sparkling all of a sudden. "I'll walk you home, Hori-chan-senpai!"

"There's no need."

"Aw..."

* * *

When they do reach the entrance of the school, though, it's still pouring like no return and Hori is reminded of the painful fact that he lacks an umbrella, a jacket, or literally anything else to use to shield himself from the rain without having to use his bag. Kashima brings out a dark blue umbrella with light blue fish designs and opens it, before turning to face Hori with a _see you tomorrow!_ hanging on the tip of her tongue. Then she sees his lack of a rain guard.

"Now there _is_ a need for me to walk you home, Senpai," Kashima says, perhaps much too cheerily for someone who had just had homophobic slurs written all over their shoes a day before. Hori grunts and decides to go along with it, and tries not to look as happy as he feels on the way home.

* * *

 **"Rin-chan" is Kashima's little sister in this. (Day 3.)**

 **Tomorrow: Teamwork. (I really like the one I wrote for tomorrow...)**

 _ **Slacker, 6/5/15**_


	6. an ally to guard the night time

**HoriKashi Week, Day 6: Teamwork. Title from Enemy Fire - Bea Miller. Fantasy AU?**

* * *

Masayuki is almost impressed by the fact that absolutely no guards have intercepted him so far. It's the middle of the night, and this is the mansion of the richest woman in the country, and there is absolutely no one patrolling the halls. Surely the Lady of the mansion would at least assign _someone_ to guard the doors, but they're absolutely unguarded. If the rumors of a half-demon being her personal assistant are true, then the brunet should be skewered on a pitchfork by now, not walking through the halls like he's a resident.

Well, he supposes he could just be extremely lucky tonight. No operation has gone as smoothly as this without being interrupted very rudely around the safe-password-cracking part, so Masayuki crosses his fingers and hopes that tonight will be a good night.

Five minutes later, Masayuki concludes that tonight will not be a good night.

If he was being honest, he really should have expected this from the start. The Lady was the greatest enemy of the entire country, ever since she had decided to move here all the way from America and plop down in Japan. Her influence over much of the government, along with the fact that she was no stranger to bribery and persuasion, made her the country's worst nightmare, including Masayuki's organization... and _them_.

 _Them_ included the person standing right before him as soon as he rounded the corner.

" _You!_ " They both whisper-yell, mainly because they _are_ still in enemy territory, despite the fact that there is a suspicious lack of enemies in the place at all. That infuriating, obnoxious, ridiculous, and most importantly, _tall_ person looks utterly horrified at the sight of Hori Masayuki standing before her, which Masayuki can relate to, due to the cobalt-haired woman in front of _him_.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Masayuki hisses, his hand already clutching the handle of his knife.

"I should be asking _you_ that," Kashima Yuu retorts, having pulled out her twin pistols and holding them threateningly at her sides, arms tensed to move quickly. "I don't care if you kill me along the way, I'm taking the money and that's that."

"Idiot! There won't be any need for _you_ to get what's rightfully ours. _I'm_ taking the money."

"There's a half-demon somewhere in this place and while I'd rather not bump into it, I could totally take it on and kick it right out of this house. And you? All you've got is one measly knife."

"Why do you think I'm trying to get more money, wise ass? I'm not some _creature_ like you, I'm only human and humans have limitations, _just_ so you know."

"I'm only about twenty-five percent succubus, _just so you know_!"

" _The point still stands!_ " He sighs irritably and runs a hand through his hair. "Look, _I_ don't want to get caught up in this woman's house, nor do I want to be cornered by her bodyguard or what-have-you. So if we go separate ways, we won't have to deal with each other's bullshit and it's a happy ending for both of us. How about that? Leave right now and there'll be nothing coming your way, human or not."

Kashima sneers, and actually manages to pull it off while still looking like the prince who swept women of all ages off their feet. "Sounds like you've got your head all muddled up - _you're_ the one who should be turning back, and I'll be the one who'll be making off with all the money. Who knows? If you go quietly, I may even give you a hundred yen for your troubles."

"Are you asking for a fight!?"

"Well, it wasn't what I meant, but a fight's a fight and I sure as hell love fights!"

Masayuki manages to lunge towards Kashima right before her guns go off, scratching her cheek with his knife. The bullets make a hole right through the wall he had just been in front of, though, and the brunet doesn't think he wants to stick around for very long near those. He takes off running down the hall, Kashima's yelp of pain and the sound of bullets firing roaring behind him. He turns corners and ducks into various hallways, hoping that the noise won't wake anyone who's asleep at the moment. Thankfully, his training hadn't been for nothing, and he loses sight of her quickly after a few turns.

Leaning against a pillar, the brunet sighs and allows himself to catch his breath, still looking around, just in case. He can hear footsteps thundering down the hall somewhere, but they sound distant, so it's probably nothing... he hopes. Still clutching his knife, Masayuki continues down the corridor, sticking to the darker parts to be safe. Every so often, something moves among the shadows, but it's likely just the clouds in the open window-

Open?

Something lunges out from behind the very same pillar he had just hidden behind, slamming against him and causing both of them to crash onto the ground. A blade flashes towards his throat, but Masayuki just manages to parry it with his knife and push the... whatever it is off of him. In the dim moonlight, the human-like figure seems to have short hair and is... quite tall... but certainly male.

"Who are you?" the... _thing_ asks, his voice unexpectedly light. "It's bad manners to enter without knocking... not to mention that you broke our lock in half when no one came to answer the door."

"Trust me, I don't break locks. That was probably the _other_ intruder in here. Blue hair, really tall?"

He seems to relax a bit, dropping the offensive stance, but still holding on to his katana. "Oh. Her. She was pretty fast, and when I got her to drop her guns, she almost cut me into sashimi. I think she's pretty hungry, she was complaining that she would have wanted to eat someone named _Hori-senpai_... is that you?"

"She... really called me _senpai?_ " Masayuki feels pretty tempted to march right over to wherever that stupid succubus was and smash her head into the ground. "I didn't even know succubi ate humans. Is that normal?"

"Well, adults sometimes do, but it's kind of a rare treat for them seeing as some of the pureblooded lines of succubi don't leave the Underworld a whole lot. Incubi are more likely to eat humans than their female counterpart." A pause. "Last time I checked, I think the ratio was two-one. But anyway, are you here for the same reason that blue gun-woman was here for?"

 _Was_ here. Masayuki tries to envision this thing throwing Kashima Yuu straight out of the mansion, which would probably explain the open window. "I might be. But do you think I would be having a civilized conversation with you about the eating habits of succubi if I were here to steal your Lady's fortune?"

"It's a common tactic to stall for time, so, yes."

He pounces on Masayuki before the brunet could even move to the side, effectively pinning him down to the floor. The blade of his katana is pressed to the brunet's neck, and Masayuki idly registers the scent of blood. Whether it's his or someone else's, he doesn't care, because his head had just slammed against the floor and everything felt quite fuzzy. "Well," he manages, and his voice sounds strangely distorted, "sounds like I failed this operation."

"So you _are_ working with an organization?"

"I didn't say anything like that, did I?"

The blade presses ever closer. Masayuki can feel something trickling down the side of his neck. "Please tell me. I don't feel like throwing anyone else out tonight, I'm rather sleepy, you know, and Seo-sama has been telling me to get her some pudding from the kitchen for the past ten minutes I've been searching for the two intruders in here. The blue gun-woman tired me out quickly..."

"I came here of my own will," Masayuki replies, which isn't _technically_ a lie.

"That doesn't answer the question. Would you hurry? I'm sleepy and I want to go back and rest."

"I didn't come here to answer questions, either."

"So you're telling me to kill you and be done with it? That sounds awfully cruel."

"You're a _half-demon_ , aren't you?"

A moment of silence. Masayuki tries groping around for the handle of his knife, but the thing's knee is pressing down rather hard on his wrist. "I don't go around advertising that, but you're right. Kind of."

"Demons are supposed to be ruthless."

"But I'm nice! At least, my other side is."

"You're telling me that your niceness is canceling out your ruthlessness?"

"Well, I try to make it that way."

At around this point, Masayuki would shake his head in disappointment, but as the situation involves a very sharp blade pressed against his neck, hard enough to draw a small portion of blood, shaking his head would most likely just get himself decapitated. He settles for rolling his eyes. "You can't be _that_ nice. You work for the Lady!"

"That just means I _have_ to be nice. She doesn't make it easy, you know."

"No human's that nice, or patient."

"Who said my other half was human?"

Masayuki freezes. Great. What was he, half-demon and half-dragon? In that case, there would be scales on his face, at the very least, but he hadn't seen anything glimmer in the moonlight. Half-ghoul? He shouldn't be this solid, either, and he would have a lower voice. Half-wizard? Then why would he use a katana...? "Wait, I get it. Were you involved in that experiment, like, twenty years ago? The one with..."

"Breeding angels with demons wasn't a very good idea, don't you think? Most of the demons just went ahead and killed their should-be spouses. But I guess my mom was a very nice demon, and my dad was an even nicer angel, because here I am," he says, sighing as if disappointed in his parents. "And... for the record, it was twenty-three years ago."

"So then, you're one of the two kids who were actually born in that place? Are you the..." Masayuki wracks his brain for the names he had read so long ago. "Er, the Okada one?"

"Okada-kun was shipped away to England and Seo-sama and I never saw him again," he responds, sounding awfully nonchalant. "I'm Wakamatsu Hirotaka, Seo Yuzuki-sama's personal assistant. Don't call me a butler, she doesn't really like that, says it sounds really stuck-up. I've said enough, haven't I?"

Seconds before the katana slices his head off, something whizzes past Wakamatsu's ear, taking a few strands of purple hair along with it. The half-demon sits up, glancing out of the open window, giving Masayuki the chance to grab his knife, shove the poor guy off of him, and take off running down the hall. He knows he's probably no match against a seriously extraterrestrial being like him, but he's willing to take the chance if it means he won't be shish-kebab by the end of five minutes.

There's a yelp of surprise behind him, and then footfalls that are growing increasingly louder and closer. Masayuki turns around to face the surprised Wakamatsu, tackles him with all the strength he can muster, and then dashes towards the window at the end of the hall without waiting to see what the half-demon will do. Something grabs his ankle, but he kicks it off as hard as he can and does the most stupid thing he has ever done throughout this entire operation, which is jump out the window.

He is pretty sure he breaks about five different bones when he crashes against a tree - thank _God_ for creating trees and placing them here, in this incredibly coincidental position, really - when he spies something from the other side of the mansion, likely where the arrow, or what looked like an arrow, had been fired when he had still been in danger of turning into Masashimi. Someone incredibly short, with vibrant orange hair and childish ribbons tied in it. Why on Earth anyone would wear those, along with such bright hair, during an operation, Masayuki wouldn't know. The person seems to have noticed the brunet as well, since she (he supposes she's a she) gestures to come over as quickly as he can.

That's certainly not easy, considering he's on a tree and his destination would require him having to jump and land safely on two feet like some cat, but what the hell, it's either that or be turned into mince meat by that Wakamatsu guy. Masayuki clambers down the trunk as best as he can, ripping about three new holes in his pants in the process, and rushes towards the other building as fast as his feet can take him. The half-demon doesn't seem to have followed him, or at least through jumping down; if he doesn't get the hell away right now, he's sure Wakamatsu will catch up.

The lock on the doors have already been smashed in, and the doors swing open easily. The brunet speeds up the stairs until he's at the third floor, which he supposes is where the young woman had been. There's no sign of her anywhere, but there _is_ a familiar face, except the face may not be so familiar after having been thrown to the ground. "It's you!"

"Me," Kashima says in a deadpan, rubbing mud and grass stains off her forehead. A small, still-bleeding gash is visible on her cheek, which she makes no move to clean or at least to patch up. Hori would feel guilty if he weren't in the middle of an operation. "That knife of yours really hurt, you know? You should treat your fellow thieves with more care."

"What?" He growls.

"Chiyo-chan says we should make a truce until we can get out of this mansion. She says we'll even split the money between the two of us. I don't think it's the best idea ever, but she insists-"

"Whoa, whoa, hold on." Masayuki backs away slightly, shaking his head and holding his hands up. "Are you telling me that the two of you can't even handle this operation? I'm here by myself and, you know, I've at least survived this far."

"Not without my help, you haven't," a monotonous voice remarks from behind. Masayuki swivels around to face the orange-haired girl, a very unamused expression on her face, and a crossbow clutched in her hand. " _I'm_ the one who shot that bolt straight towards the half-demon, and probably saving you from a real painful death."

"Wow, nice to meet you too."

Her lips curl into a scowl, but she sighs and looks back up at Masayuki - it feels good to be taller than someone sometimes. "You're one of... _them_ , right? The ones who work with the panda and the redhead."

"Yes." He scratches the back of his head and looks around; it must be at least one in the morning now, and Masayuki _knows_ demons are more active during the night, even though it's technically morning right now. Wakamatsu probably isn't an exception to this. "You're that orange arbalist we've heard about, aren't you? Sakura Chiyo."

"That's me." She looks vaguely annoyed. "I know we're calling a truce and everything, so it should be natural you know our names, but I don't know jack about _you_. I guess you're just not important enough, huh?"

"Hey."

"This one's Hori-senpai," Kashima introduces, as if that explains everything. "He's the one who was with _you-know-who_ when _you-know-what_ happened."

Sakura blinks. "Oh." Another slight pause. "Well, I _guess_ I can afford to be nice to you, after that happened. I would be pretty traumatized after that, too."

Masayuki sighs. "Yeah, whatever. I'm Hori Masayuki, if you didn't catch on. How long does this truce last?"

"Until we get out of this place." She starts walking up a nearby staircase, looking over her back cautiously. "That Lady's smarter than she lets on. She must have known we were both going to infiltrate her place tonight, so she made the necessary... _preparations_ , for a warm welcome." The edges of her lips curl downwards in distaste. Kashima makes a frightened noise beside Masayuki. "She's got the whole area under lockdown, and heavily-armed guards patrolling the halls, if you can call it patrolling. We won't be able to get out of this place without extra help. So even though it pains me to say this, it looks like we're going to have to cooperate, at least until we get the money and get the hell out of here."

"I don't think Chiyo-chan's ever been this angry before," Kashima whispers, as if the two of them are children being scolded by their favorite teacher. "Maeno was the one who planned the operation, and she was the one who voted against it most, but I guess he didn't care since we're here right now..."

"That's cool and all, but I don't really care about the _why_ s of this thing," Masayuki grumbles, keeping an eye out for things like half-demons to come plowing through solid walls and cut his head off. "It's just some 'lockdown', isn't it? You can just head straight for the nearest entrance, bring out those guns of yours, and blow things up. And that Sakura can fire her whatever-they-ares from a safe distance. You should be out in no time."

"When she says 'heavily-armed guards'," Kashima murmurs, now sounding heavily distressed. "Chiyo-chan meant-"

No sooner does Masayuki hear the thumping noise does the staircase crumble from above, showering the third and second floor with broken stairs, several rocks, and what looks like half a couch. Sakura makes a hissing sound not unlike a displeased cat and whirls around, running down the remaining steps that aren't crumbling to their deaths back down to the third floor, dashing down the left corridor. Kashima takes off running without another word, which must mean she trusts Sakura quite a bit, and seeing as Masayuki would much prefer escaping alive, or at least somewhere close to alive, rather than being crushed by cabinets falling from the sky, he follows the two women as well, however reluctantly.

The sound of crashing and smashing escalates until Masayuki is about ninety-percent certain that if he turns around, even for a split second, he'd be crushed to death by the very house itself. Among the sound of the wreckage, he's also fairly sure that he can hear insane cackling, which just about scares him out of his wits and just urges him to run faster, even though his legs are screaming for rest. Sakura looks like she's slowing down, but Kashima is sprinting along like this is all just warm-up to get ready for the real thing. ('The real thing' for her must be something like escaping a horde of bloodthirsty demons or a whole swarm of these 'heavily-armed guards'. Masayuki wouldn't be surprised.)

Eventually, they reach the first floor, with Masayuki barely able to keep moving and Sakura practically being carried by Kashima, who even now is tiring as well. The noises are fading away, as if whoever is causing the large amount of property damage had taken a wrong turn somewhere around the fifth hall. The exit door has steel plates built over it, and Sakura makes a sort of noise that makes even Masayuki want to back away from her, even with the threat of the whatever-it-is right behind him. " _Steel plates!_ "

"How did you scream that while totally out of breath?" Kashima gapes.

"That's not important! When you told me they locked the place down, you didn't tell me they put _steel plates_ over the doors!"

"Well, we were kind of in a hurry during-"

"Anyway!" The arbalist looks around, clearly disturbed by the lack of guards in the area. "The guard here must have abandoned their post to go smashing and crashing their way around their own house. Do we have any ways to bust this exit open?"

"Wait, wait. What about the money?" Masayuki interjects, because seriously, if he leaves this mansion without the money, he might as well not leave at all and just take on the half-demon and whatever else is guarding this place by himself. He'll drag his body bruised and bleeding to the safe if he has to. "We can't just leave without the money. It's what we came here for."

"If anyone should do that, then it should probably be Kashima-kun," Sakura muses, glancing over at the tallest among them. "You're probably the only one who might stand a chance against the half-demon if you keep your guard up and not get taken off-guard by him like last time. He knocked your guns away, though, didn't he?"

"I've still got one, and my daggers," Kashima exclaims cheerily, holding up the lone pistol with her right hand and twirling three daggers between her fingers in her other. "I might even get to trap him, who knows? But what about the- the _other_ one?" Her expression falters. "She might, you know, come after the two of you here, especially if you make a lot of noise."

"Oh, trust me, we'll make a lot of noise," Masayuki mutters, pulling out a small, oval-shaped item from his pocket. It had been rather unsettling to have something of that caliber just hanging around in his pants, but at least it hadn't gone off accidentally like with the other time Nozaki hadn't been paying attention. "Mikoshiba modified this thing to bust holes through titanium. If two of these won't work, I doubt anything will."

Sakura nods, a grim expression on her face. Kashima just blinks at the sight of the grenade as if she's never seen one in her life. "It'll have to do. It's a bit barbaric, but we don't have many choices right now."

"... Barbaric, huh?"

A rumbling sound echoes throughout the halls. Sakura flinches, Kashima looks up as if expecting the ceiling to crumble to pieces, and Masayuki clutches his knife a little tighter. "Alright," the arbalist says, a tone of finality in her voice, "Kashima-kun, get the money as fast as you can and get back here, preferably with all limbs and your head intact. We should have blown this place open by the time you get here, but if we haven't-" She sighs. "We might have to call Miyako-sensei, and I'd rather we not do that."

Kashima shivers, likely due to an unwanted memory. "Yeah, well. Yeah."

She leaves rather quickly after that.

* * *

"So that redhead of yours made this?" Sakura asks, holding the grenade and scrutinizing it carefully, as if checking it for any traps, if that were possible. "I _guess_ that's pretty admirable."

"He did. And he's not _ours_ ," Masayuki replies, rolling his eyes. "Well, I suppose he is, in the loosest sense, but it's still... you know. When do I let these go off?"

"When Kashima-kun starts making a lot of noise," Sakura says, hesitantly handing the grenade over. "The half-demon - Wakamatsu-kun, he's a swift fighter and usually-" she shudders briefly, "- _disposes_ of his opponents quietly. On the other hand, the... the other guard, she's very loud. She's the one who attacked us just a while ago, but we managed to shake her off. Once she spots Kashima-kun and starts fighting, there's no doubt that they'll make enough noise to cover up the blasts of your grenades. That way, nobody would suspect that we've managed to blow open these doors."

Masayuki nods appraisingly. "Good plan."

Violet eyes glance over at him in suspicion, which the brunet can't really blame her for. "Thanks."

"Remind me why we're rivaling organizations again?" Masayuki says, leaning against a wall and crossing his arms. "If my memory serves right, it was because of that other woman. What was her name- Mikari Yuko?"

"Miyako Yukari-sensei," Sakura says, shifting her crossbow from side to side in what is hopefully a nervous habit and not a sign that she's about to fire a bolt straight towards him. "It's not our fault, you know. It's just that-"

"She set a horde of those tanuki on us," Masayuki interrupts, voice set in a deadpan. "I don't see any excuse you can come up with to defend your friend when I say it like that."

"You provoked her."

"All we did was have a nice, civilized conversation. You got the money that was supposed to be ours, and we asked for it back. Nozaki was even being polite, which is a lot more than what I can say for the other organizations out there."

Sakura frowns. "It was probably because she got intimidated. She's one of the rarer beast tamers you see these days, you know? I'll admit she's not the best at, well, _controlling_ animals, but they mostly react to her emotions, and she was scared. You two were the immediate threats in the area, and so they lunged at you to protect their master. It's as simple as that. So if it's anyone's fault-"

Something crashes in the distance, like an entire floor being leveled. Several voices shout over the noise, echoing through the halls, and then the sound of destruction starts.

It's deafening, a lot louder than what Masayuki had been preparing for - through the smashes and the loud, definite sound of part of the mansion crumbling underneath what is doubtless the 'other guard' Sakura had been talking about, someone is cackling madly like they'd just won an international competition and had triumphed over their arch nemesis. Sakura nods, which Masayuki supposes is a signal for 'now', and the brunet moves a safe distance away from the doors, grabbing a flimsy-looking table and ducking behind it, followed quickly by Sakura, who looks like she's regretting everything in her life that has led to this moment. He handles the grenade with ease, then throws it, two in quick succession, towards the doors.

Masayuki likes to think that the fight ongoing somewhere behind them is nothing compared to the explosions the grenades had caused, but considering he had heard firsthand how loud the Other Guard could be, and how there was quite a bit of distance between the fight and the doors, he couldn't really make an accurate comparison. If he had to choose, both were equally loud and equally dangerous. While the grenades had been designed to have a limited range but not-so-limited firepower, the blast was so intense that Masayuki could almost feel his eyebrows get singed off, which he really hoped didn't actually happen, because that wouldn't exactly be the best thing that had happened since he'd gone on this stupid operation. Heaving the broken, splintered table off of them, Masayuki pulls Sakura to her feet at the same time Kashima comes rushing down the hall, leaving a trail of dust behind her, and with a panicked expression plastered to her face and dragging three bags of what Masayuki assumes is money along with her.

"Chiyo-chan, Hori-senpai! It's- She's- I couldn't stall her any longer, she almost smashed me to a pulp with that sledgehammer of hers!"

Masayuki's eyes bulge out. "The guard has a _sledgehammer?_ "

"Considering she's not actually a guard and the Lady of the mansion is actively trying to kill us with, yes, her giant mechanical sledgehammer the size of a rocket missile, I don't blame you for running, Kashima-kun," Sakura says dryly, ignoring the stunned look Masayuki is giving her. "Now come on, hurry up! I can hear that crazy woman coming down towards us already. Go!"

Kashima nods and scrambles out immediately, stumbling over the wreckage that were once doors, followed by Masayuki, who pulls Sakura along to make sure she doesn't trip over some steel plates still sticking up or something. After a nervous look around the courtyard to make sure no half-demons or lunatic Ladies are around, they start running-

-only for Masayuki himself to feel something stabbing him on the side.

Now if it hadn't been for Kashima's quick (and demonic) reflexes, Hori Masayuki would be lying on the neatly trimmed grass now, staining the green blades red from the blood pooling around his chest. As it was, the succubus had pushed him out of the way at the last second and Wakamatsu Hirotaka's katana had only just managed to pierce his side. Through the intense pain, Masayuki can just vaguely make out a small trickle of blood streaming down to his waist - near him, Kashima had armed herself with her last dagger and Sakura had her crossbow at the ready. Wakamatsu himself, Masayuki could see, was standing, slightly hunched, clutching his katana and soft blue eyes darting back and forth, as if trying to assess which woman would be a greater threat.

(Idly, Masayuki realizes that he's the only male among the three of them, and he had been the one who had been incapacitated easily while Kashima and Sakura, both younger than him by at least a year, were trying to defend _him_. He doesn't know whether he wants to shake his injury off and stand up to fight, or to just curl into a ball and sink into the floor in shame.)

"Sorry about that," Wakamatsu apologizes, though he doesn't sound very sorry. "Have you seen her? Seo-sama got bored and decided to jump in on the fun, or so she says. I guess pudding really makes her want to run around, even if it's in the middle of the night and all I want to do is to go back to sleep, or maybe just stay in bed and eat cereal and do nothing for five more hours. Doesn't that make you want to just hand over the money nice and slow and preferably without maiming me and then go back home peacefully?"

"No," Sakura says, which is about pretty much the end of the conversation.

"Oh," Wakamatsu says, sounding genuinely dejected, as if he had actually been expecting them to step down after all that hard work. "Well, sorry about this, then. I guess I'll have to, you know." He makes a vague gesture, like a half-hearted shrug. "Kill you."

The next few seconds is just a blur of movement; Wakamatsu had decided to rush Sakura, katana flashing for the kill, when she had jumped lithely out of the way, too quick even for a half-demon, and fired several bolts towards him in quick succession, all of which were deflected with the blade of his sword. Kashima lunges from behind, arm outstretched, but before she can grab Wakamatsu and press her dagger to his neck, the half-demon whips around and slashes at her, just narrowly missing her midsection. Masayuki staggers to his feet, his right hand clutching his knife while his left tries to stop any more blood from flowing out. Wakamatsu seems to notice, but doesn't act on it, weaving in and out of Sakura and Kashima's combined efforts to take him down and occasionally slashing at either one when he has the chance. Then the brunet notices that Wakamatsu's back is facing him, just a little slightly to the side, and he decides to take the risk.

Masayuki drags himself to get behind Wakamatsu as much as he can, to avoid his line of sight. He suspects the half-demon notices - it's kind of hard not to, most demons can track the scent of blood without even trying - but before Wakamatsu can turn around to face him, Sakura fires a bolt towards him, successfully catching him in the arm. In that split second moment of distraction, Masayuki rushes in - but then so does Kashima.

The half-demon steps out of the way. It's too late for both of them to stop; Hori Masayuki and Kashima Yuu collide.

The brunet is fairly sure that if Kashima's the one who falls over, his side will explode and his skull will break in half. Of course, that means that he's the one who softens the blow for the succubus. In the back of his mind, he vaguely registers the fact that, while his skull did _not_ break in half (immediately, at least), it sure feels like it did. Also, for a quarter-succubus, Kashima has a fairly flat chest.

There's the sound of a crossbow firing, which Masayuki has already grown accustomed to. Hopefully, Wakamatsu Hirotaka has a sense of chivalry to not attack an enemy when he (or in this case, they) is down. Then a new voice joins the fray, this one vaguely feminine, and the brunet has a bad feeling that this is not a person on their side.

"Hey-! Waka, Waka, Waka."

"Seo-sama?" Something skids on the grass, and Sakura lets out a yelp of pain. "Were there more intruders in the mansion?"

"Wha? No. I just came here to tell you that we just lost a lot of money."

Above him, Kashima winces and rolls off the still-bleeding brunet, before getting back to her feet and gripping her dagger; the bags of money had been thrown to the side, partially hidden by a clump of bushes and a tree.

"Did we?" Wakamatsu turns to face Kashima without a hint of hesitation. Kashima stares right back. "I don't know where it could have gone, but I'll search for-"

"What'cha talking about, Wakaaaa?"

"... Seo-sama?"

"We're moving to England tomorrow! I don't really care how much money we lost. Onii-chan told me we'd be able to stay with him somewhere in..." A pause. "What was it? London?"

Wakamatsu sighs, and the sound of a sword being sheathed echoes in the quiet night air. "Well, alright. Will it be fine if we let these intruders go alive, then? It'd be a shame, they went ahead in here and caused property damage, not to mention even stealing your money, Seo-sama..."

"Most of the property damage was caused by her, you know," Kashima says.

Masayuki manages to sit up just in time to catch Seo Yuzuki in the middle of a laugh - or, more accurately, a very familiar cackle. Her blonde hair is a mess, and there are traces of food around her lips. The giant mechanical sledgehammer she twirls around in her right hand just about finishes the picture. To the side, Sakura looks absolutely terrified. "That's true, ain't it? I'll have to give you guys props to the grenades, those were pretty cool. But hey, even if it's one in the morning and I'm raring to go, I can't go and ignore a direct order from dear ol' Onii-chan. Waka, come on! England."

The half-demon hesitates, glancing nervously towards Sakura and Kashima (and totally ignoring Masayuki, like, what's _that_ supposed to mean), before nodding, more to himself than anything, and following the blonde back in the wrecked mansion, if it can even be called that by this point. Half of it looks like it's been blown off, which might not be too far from the truth, if the sledgehammer in Seo's hand is anything to go by. Within another few seconds, the half-demon and the Lady of the previously-a-mansion disappear into the still-intact part of the house.

Silence descends. Sakura coughs, and Kashima hurries back to Masayuki and helps him up. The brunet tries to act cool and get up himself, but ultimately takes Kashima's outstretched hand when his side just starts acting up again.

"So does that mean this truce is over?" Masayuki asks, wrenching his hand away from Kashima's stubbornly, going over to grab his knife on habit. He's somewhat amazed he had managed to not lose a little blade like that through all this destruction. "I hope you two won't try to kill me when I'm injured. That's kind of what other people call bad manners."

Sakura scoffs and turns away, crossing her arms. "Really, Hori-senpai?"

"Oh, you're calling me Senpai too, huh?"

"Nothing like that. It just feels like a good thing to add on to your name. It was either that or 'Hori-chan', you know."

"Yeah... Yeah, call me Senpai."

"Thought so." She shrugs. "Anyway, we're not that horrible to kill him now, are we, Kashima-kun?"

"I'm not _totally_ against getting rid of him right now," Kashima says, smiling like the sun. Masayuki scowls over at her and moves over to Sakura's side. The succubus frowns. "Hey!"

The arbalist shoves Masayuki back to Kashima's side, much to his annoyance. "Let's not act like five-year-olds. We'll let you go free, just this once, Hori-senpai, but the next time we meet, we're not letting you go that easily. Hopefully, we _won't_ see each other again unless we're all dead, so we can just repeatedly fight each other somewhere down in the Underworld."

"Are you really going to be looking forward to that?"

"No."

Masayuki shrugs. "Okay." He takes a step forward, and then almost falls on his face. " _Damn_ -!"

"Ooh, we should get you to Miyako-sensei!" Kashima says, looking almost excited. "She's our best medic, the animals get her all the herbs she needs-" She stops when Sakura gives her a look. "Right. Sorry."

"You sound so excited," Masayuki remarks dryly. He forces himself to stand back upright, then hobbles over to where the bags of money are hidden. "I'll take half of this. How much did you get?"

"Like, a hundred and fifty-five thousand American dollars," Kashima says, sounding almost dreamy. "If I had more time, I could have taken more, but the crazy woman was swinging her hammer around and destroying the ceiling like it's nothing. You can understand how much I was fearing for my life and if my skeleton would be flattened to dust."

Masayuki nods. "Understandable." He grabs a bag, opens it, and starts counting away.

About thirty seconds in, Sakura starts tapping her foot. Another ten seconds; "Are you really going to count this place's money right here?"

"Well, yeah. We're not in immediate danger, and I'd prefer to do this while the truce is still there."

Kashima raises her hand and raises her pointer and index finger in a scissor-like shape, then starts 'cutting' somewhere in the air. "Snip snip. Alright, I just cut the truce," she says happily, twirling her dagger like a sadistic maniac. "How about that!"

"Kashima-kun," Sakura says warningly. The succubus droops.

The brunet rolls his eyes, moving on from the first bag (fifty thousand) and grabbing twenty-seven thousand and five hundred from the second. "There. You'll let me go peacefully, won't you?"

Sakura nods, though it looks like it physically pains her to do it. Kashima, on the other hand, just looks disappointed. "Hori-senpai! You're not gonna stay for, I dunno, _medical treatment?_ You're gonna bleed to death if you're just gonna walk home like that."

"Since when were you worried?" the brunet asks, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in his side as he scoops up one bag, stuffs the rest of his share in it, and starts dragging it along the grass.

"Well, at least do some first-aid on it."

"I'm not going to be walking home anyway," Masayuki replies, digging a phone out from his pants pocket. Amazingly enough, it hadn't fallen out during the operation, much like his knife. "Nozaki? I'm done over here. Mind sending someone to pick me up? I'm kinda, you know, bleeding. Yeah. Not too much. Seventy-seven thousand five hundred American dollars. Yeah. Yeah. ... Alright."

"You have a ride? Unfair," Kashima whines.

Next to her, Sakura sighs. "It's not like HQ is too far from here, Kashima-kun. If you're planning to stay here for longer, I don't mind, but make sure you hurry up. I'll bring the money." She grabs the remaining two bags, checks to make sure there's still the remaining half, then heads out the gates, almost getting run over by a speeding truck in the process.

Masayuki stares at the succubus, who is playing around with her dagger, almost like she's waiting for the brunet. He _supposes_ he should thank her for pretty much saving him from being gutted by Wakamatsu just a few minutes ago, but all that comes out is a "Uh... why are you still here?"

"No reason," Kashima replies, not even bothering to look at him. In addition to the throbbing in his side, something starts twitching above his right eye. Masayuki supposes that isn't a good sign. He notices that the small cut on Kashima's cheek he had made at the very beginning of this stupid operation is still there, closed up, though there's still some blood staining her chin.

"Right, then. Well-"

"Ooh, wait! Before you go." Quick as a breeze, she snatches the phone right out of Masayuki's hand and starts tapping away on it, clearly enjoying their height difference now as the brunet leaps at her and tries, and fails, to retrieve his phone.

" _What are you doing!?_ "

"Here!" She hands the phone back to him, which he grabs and holds close to his chest like it's his baby or something. "I just gave you something you might want. Or need. Or both!" Another sunny smile. "Well, it looks like your ride's here. See you!"

"What-?" He turns around to face the outside of the gates to see a black car pulling up. Nozaki's driving; Mayu's in the passenger's seat, a first-aid kit on his lap. When he turns around, probably to start interrogating the succubus on what exactly she had done to his phone, she's already gone.

Masayuki sighs, runs a hand through his hair (and staining some of it red in the process), before opening the door and climbing into the car, setting the bag of money down on the car floor. Mayu sets to work without a word, and Nozaki starts asking what on _Earth_ had happened and repeatedly says that he _knew_ he should have gone with him or sent Mikoshiba along, etcetera. Masayuki waves most of his comments off and ignores the rest, deigning to check his phone instead.

Kashima had set the lock screen as her face, looking like she had just been in a party, a stray streamer sticking out of her hair. Masayuki has no idea how she had guessed his password, but when he checks his recently opened apps, his Contacts and Photos are open (along with Phone).

He opens Contacts and finds a new number registered in there. The contact name is **ur best girl ;)))**. Masayuki _almost_ crushes his phone into dust, but decides to just deal with it later - or, more accurately, never, because it doesn't even bother him as much as it should.

For some reason, he's not totally surprised by this.

* * *

 **Tomorrow: Free-For-All. (It's the last day!)**

 _ **Slacker, 6/6/15**_


	7. hold your breath

**HoriKashi Week, Day 7: Free-For-All. A Different First Meeting AU. Title from Fall For You - Secondhand Serenade.**

* * *

Kashima enters detention to see only one other student in the room.

The teacher isn't there yet, so she takes her time picking a seat, trying to find a place where the teacher would be least likely to see her. Eventually, she settles for behind the student, who looks a little older than her. "Hello."

"Hey," the brunet replies, looking up from his folder momentarily to glance up at her. Then he advances from 'glance' to 'look' and then to 'stare'. He clears his throat, then asks, "What are you in here for?"

"It wasn't _my_ fault, really," Kashima starts immediately. "It's just that Hoshikura-chan and Nakamura-senpai got into a fight, so I intervened because they were arguing about something _Tanaka_ -san did, so I tried to tell them that, but then Hoshikura-chan started shouting at me a-and then she started crying! I thought she got mad at me so I tried to apologize even if I had no idea what I was apologizing for, and then Ushi-sensei went in and thought I made Hoshikura-chan cry and-" She stops. "Yeah."

The brunet rolls his eyes. "So what happened with Hoshikura and Nakamura?"

"Oh, they made up once they saw me get detention," Kashima replies offhandedly, placing her bag on the empty seat next to her, just to establish her place, and places her chin on the desk. "Tanaka-san found out and got really mad at the both of them, but I don't know what happened next. I hope they didn't get into a screaming match again."

"Well, good for you," he says, closing his folder and putting it back in his bag. "I'm Hori, by the way. Eighth detention in the past two weeks and none of them are my fault."

"Kashima," she introduces. "Eighth? Wow, someone's got it for you."

He sighs. "I think Mita's going through some sort of rebel phase. She keeps doing stuff like spray painting the faculty room and blaming it on whoever is nearest, which somehow always happens to be me."

Kashima reaches over and pats his back. Hori manages a halfhearted smile. "Anyway, I hope she stops before she graduates, because I'm not going to be there to be her scapegoat anymore, unless we wind up attending the same university, which would either be very good or very bad." At Kashima's questioning look, he adds, "She's vice president of the drama club."

"And you're...?"

"President," Hori mumbles, sounding almost insecure about it. Kashima blinks in surprise. "It's not, you know, something I really advertise. Considering I can't exactly act especially with my-" He pauses. "-especially with the shortage of people working on sets and props."

"But you should be good at acting, right? I mean, you're, you know, president," Kashima says.

Hori shrugs. "Yeah, I guess."

"Well, act for me!"

A silence.

"... What?" the brunet manages.

Kashima rubs the back of her head nervously. "Well, the teacher isn't here yet. Why don't you? Like, I dunno, something from a classic play. Or like, whatever you want. I wanna see!"

"You sound like a little kid," Hori says, raising an eyebrow.

"I _am_ younger than you. Like... probably."

"Point." He sighs, before standing up. "Well, I'll just do- something. Will something from Romeo and Juliet be fine?"

The moment Hori opens his mouth, _if I profane with my unworthiest hand_ , Kashima is just about absorbed into the words - when he moves, even just a little, lifting his arms or taking a step forward, it makes Kashima feel like it should be a crime to be that good. She doesn't even notice when he stops _(to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss)_ , and continues staring at him with her mouth hanging open; the only other thing needed to complete the image would be her eyes sparkling, unless they actually _are_. If her interest in theatre had only been a small, budding one, it might as well have bloomed and multiplied to make a damn bouquet by now.

"Kashima?" Hori blinks.

It takes a while before she snaps back into reality, but when she does, she shakes her head and looks back up at Hori, who's still standing like he doesn't know whether to sit back down or not. "Hori-senpai! That was- That was, what do I say- _amazing!_ "

"Thanks," the brunet replies, not looking entirely convinced. "You looked weird for a moment there."

"Did I?" Kashima shrugs. "Anyway- that _was_ really good! Why aren't you the lead actor or something? You could totally do it!"

"I _used_ to be one of the main characters, until my height started falling," Hori says icily, looking mutinous. "Believe me, I'd go on stage if I could, but no one's going to take my one-sixty-four centimeter height seriously."

"O-One-sixty-four!?" He certainly hadn't looked _that_ short, but then again, they were both sitting until just a few minutes ago. Kashima stands up, just to make sure, and immediately feels like sitting back down when she realizes exactly how she towers over him. "... Oh." Like, it's not a _huge_ difference, maybe just ten centimeters or so, but it still makes Hori look like he's seconds away from punching her in the face and maybe breaking her nose. "Right. Sorry." She sits back down so fast her thigh slams against the edge of the desk, which makes her stand back up again out of pain, causing her to slam herself against the table again. " _Ow_."

"Are you alright?" Hori asks dryly.

"No," she whimpers, but sits down properly this time, not bothering to smooth down her skirt. Anyway, she wears shorts underneath, so it doesn't really matter, much the same way it doesn't matter if anyone sees her chest, mainly because there's _nothing_ to see. "You don't suppose there's anything in the infirmary for bruises?"

"Teach wouldn't let you. He'll probably think you're trying to make an excuse to get out of detention. Your best bet to get away, incidentally, would be to use the window over there," Hori adds, pointing to a window that has clearly been graffitied several times over. "Everyone always makes sure to leave a little message for the teacher when they escape through that, like "TAKE THAT YA MORON HAHAHAHA!" or "IM FREE BITCHES"."

Kashima glances over at the window. A recent message had been written in the corner of the window pane, reading "FREE HIM". "Lovely. Where does it go, though? We're up on the third floor."

"In a hallway on the first floor, through a window. I think it's near the middle school classrooms. Anyway, it's a little tricky, but there are lots of footholds, if you know where they are. It's typically a bad idea to use it, especially since the teacher will be coming over soon, but you look like you could use a visit to the clinic." Hori casts a quick glance over at Kashima's thigh. "Want me to help? I've gone through there six out of eight times."

Kashima ponders over it for a moment, before shrugging. "Well... I dunno, maybe-"

Her phone makes a loud, blaring noise in her bag. She shoots Hori an apologetic look, which the brunet replies to with a gesture that might have been a 'go on', and Kashima snatches her phone out to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Yoo, Kashima."

"Seo-sensei? What's-"

"I just heard from down the hall, but your detention teacher is gonna be Ishiyoko, right?"

"Um... I think so."

"He's going to be getting you to sort Math workbooks," Seo says, sounding totally unconcerned. "He's a total menace if he catches you, but he's old and slow and fat. You should be in the room with the escape window, right? Use it." And with that, she hangs up without another word. Kashima pulls her phone away from her ear and stares at it incredulously.

"Hori-senpai?" Kashima squeaks.

Hori looks over at her. "What?"

"I think I'll take you up on that escape plan."

* * *

Hori goes first, which gives Kashima a chance to watch where he puts his feet, where it's safe to go and where it's only a last resort. By the time he reaches the hallway of the first floor through an equally-graffitied window, Kashima can already hear footsteps down the hall. She's in the middle of writing "not today..." when her phone buzzes with a new message from Seo, which simply reads _nice knowing u_ , and another one from Sakura, which reads _KASHIMA-KUN!_. (She replies to it with a _CHIYO-CHAN!_ , because she's the absolute best with responses.) She clambers out the window and has one leg out when Ishiyoko opens the door.

Kashima doesn't give him a chance to let him process what's happening, because she's already jumping down with impossible agility and practically scrambling down the walls of the school building to reach Hori. She's next to the second floor when Ishiyoko pokes his head out of the window, shouting protests down at her, which Kashima barely even hears. The moment she's near the first floor, she practically swings right into the window and barrels straight onto Hori, both of them collapsing onto the floor.

It is a very compromising position, but thankfully, the hallway seems to be mostly empty. The two take a moment to catch their breath, and since Kashima had pretty much crushed Hori underneath her, she sits up, rubbing her injured thigh with a wince-

-and that's as far as she gets because there is a scandalized gasp from somewhere next to them.

"Hoshikura-chan?" Kashima tilts her head to face the first-year, who has both her hands over her mouth and staring at the duo like they're the next new headline for the school paper.

"K-K-Kashima-kun, what are you..."

When Kashima _finally_ registers her position, and with a _guy_ , no less, she springs upwards and knocks the air out of Hori's gut with her knee. Ignoring the poor brunet gasping in pain beside her, she speeds over to Hoshikura in seconds, bending down to kiss the back of her hand and looks up at her with her best apologetic look. "My dear princess, you have simply caught us in an inopportune time. I would never abandon you for anyone, for you alone are my queen..."

Hoshikura's shocked expression melts away to one of content, before she turns into a blushing mess. "I-Inopportune...?"

 _Oh, great, I've somehow convinced her I was in the middle of something with Hori-senpai in a school hallway._ "This will be a secret between the two of us, won't it? Don't tell anyone at school, alright?" To finish it off, she presses a finger to Hoshikura's lips, which just about seals the deal. The first-year swoons, makes several repetitive promises to never speak a word of this, and rushes off with her face flaming.

Kashima turns around, standing up a little straighter and extending a hand to the fallen brunet. "Sorry about that, Hori-senpai! I didn't... Hori-senpai?"

Hori looks like he had just had an epiphany. Kashima waves a hand in front of his face, but he barely even blinks. "Hori-senpai, Hori-senpai, Hori Hori Hori-senpai. Are you there?"

Then the brunet springs up to his feet, eyes wide. "You... You could be our club's new star!"

A moment of silence.

Kashima blinks. "Eh? Really?"

* * *

Before that, of course, Hori escorts Kashima to the clinic. Having crash-landed through a window and onto the floor tends to make one's already-injured thigh rather painful.

* * *

 **... It's over... Thanks for reading up to here, if you did.**

 _ **Slacker, 6/7/15**_


End file.
